IV THE CELL AND THE ORGANISM 8i 



also that when this type is damaged, the remaining cells or 

 some of them can restore it, and recomplete the whole. The 

 normal power of the cells to build up an organism in repro- 

 duction according to type is one thing, and it is marvellous 

 enough even though one looks upon it as merely a case of 

 inherited routine. But the abnormal power to do this in 

 the very unusual case, so far removed from all idea of 

 routine, where the type is broken down is something 

 different, and shows how effective the power of the organism 

 as a whole is, and how strong the tendency towards the whole 

 is even in the individual cells. The damage creates a need, 

 and the need stimulates the remaining parts to perform the 

 functions of the damaged parts or to restore them in whole 

 or in part. The very nature of the cells is to function as parts 

 of a whole, and when the whole is broken down an unusual 

 extra task automatically arises for them to restore the breach, 

 and their dormant powers are aroused to action. And this 

 happens, so far as we can see, simply as a matter of interior 

 economy and domestic regulation in the organism itself and 

 without previous education for the new role. The inter- 

 action between the organism and its cells is indeed most 

 subtle and intimate, both seem to be active factors in the 

 maintenance of the whole and in the restoration of any parts 

 that may be missing and necessary for the whole. So inti- 

 mate is their interaction that it is almost impossible to say 

 where the influence of the one ends and the other begins. 



The aspect of co-ordination or subordination of parts to 

 the whole is also most significantly illustrated by the 

 phenomena of reproduction which I have already referred to 

 in another connection. Reproduction not only carries us 

 back to the past and its riddles, but also forward to the 

 future, and it is the reproductive system of organisms that 

 we must scan most closely if we wish to understand this 

 aspect of organic activities. For in reproduction the cell or 

 the organism clearly appears to look beyond itself, its 

 functions become transcendent, as far as it is itself con- 

 cerned; its efforts and energies are bent on objects and 

 purposes beyond itself. In fact, in reproduction the cell or 

 the organism bears clear testimony to the fact that it is not 



