6o HOLISM AND EVOLUTION chap. 



cell are really much more complicated, as they are effected through 

 enzyme action, which is a physico-chemical mechanism distinctive 

 of organisms. The laboratory attempts to repeat organic processes 

 throw, therefore, little light on the exact nature of these processes. 



The origin of the cell is the origin of life and is still a profound 

 mystery. However, the reproduction of cells seems to admit us to 

 the inner secrets of life, and the cell-divisions which precede cell- 

 fusions in reproduction have an extraordinary semblance to elec- 

 trical situations, and seem somehow to connect the electrical 

 structure of the atom with a possible electrical origin of the cell. It 

 is now, however, impassible to follow up this clear semblance 

 further, as the original electrical processes have probably become 

 overlaid with other developments which have transformed them. 



Judging from the action of sunlight in the growth of plants it is 

 not improbable that the cell of life arose when the sun was both 

 warmer and richer in chemically active rays, and when the waters 

 of the earth still contained many substances in solution and colloid 

 dispersal. The adhesion of cells to each other would account for 

 the origin and development of multi-cellular organisms; and the 

 divisions of cells, which we now see in growth and reproduction, 

 may have arisen originally from the breakdown of cells or groups 

 which had become too complex to be stable. 



The reproduction of plants and animals, including the reduction 

 division of the sexual cells, follows largely the same plan; and it is 

 therefore probable that this wonderful organic mechanism was 

 evolved before the bifurcation of life into the plant and animal 

 forms took place, and thus dates back to the early beginnings of 

 life on this globe. The plant type arose from its dependence for 

 food on air and earth, which was consistent with fixed positions; 

 while animals, needing organic foods, required mobility, and in 

 consequence developed a motor system with a nervous system to 

 work it, and ultimately a brain to direct and control it. 



The cell differs from the atom or molecule in its far greater com- 

 plexity of structure and function, in the differentiation and special- 

 isation of its parts and organs, and in the system of co-operation 

 among all its parts which makes them function for the whole. This 

 co-operative system exists not only in the single cell but among the 

 multitudinous cells of organisms. The system of organic regulation 

 and co-ordination among an indefinitely large number of parts 

 which makes all the parts function together for certain purposes is 

 a great advance on the system of physical equilibrium in atoms and 

 compounds, and is yet quite distinct from the control which^ at a 

 later stage of Evolution, Mind comes to exercise in animals and 

 humans. Mind as we know it must therefore not be ascribed to the 

 cell or the lower organisms; but organic regulation seems on that 

 lower level to be even more effective than Mind is at a later stage. 



