VII MECHANISM AND HOLISM 151 



transforms one or both of them so completely that its or 

 their identity is lost and irrecoverable; the resultant entity 

 X cannot be explained as the result of their separate and 

 individual influences and activities; and the merger of ele- 

 ments is far more complete than in the preceding case (3). 

 If this were a complete statement of the facts the concept 

 of Mechanism would not apply here, and it would be a case 

 of Holism pure and simple. But as a matter of fact the 

 energy contents of the elements appear to be at any rate 

 quantitatively reproduced in the new entity x; and besides, 

 X, in so far as it is a material system, still seems to conform 

 to a mechanistic t)^e and arrangement of parts. In both 

 these respects, therefore, the concept of Mechanism may 

 still be partly applied to x. But x is a mechanism of an 

 entirely new type, quite unlike the preceding case (3). It is 

 called a bio-chemical mechanism. But it is a mechanism 

 only in certain respects, and to a limited extent, and of a 

 novel character which necessitates new categories of action 

 and explanation. Beyond that it ceases to be a mechanism 

 and appears to conform to the idea of Holism in all other 

 respects. This is the case where cell a takes in food b, which 

 it transforms into its own system according to a metabolism 

 which differs in material respects from the ordinary me- 

 chanical phenomena of physics and chemistry. This is also 

 the case where cell a unites with cell b to form a new entity, 

 in which both a and b disappear finally and irrevocably, and 

 whose character and behaviour cannot be traced mathe- 

 matically or mechanically to those of a and b. The cases 

 falling under (4) therefore display a mixture of Mechanism 

 and Holism, the relations of which it remains for us to study 

 in this chapter. They form the province of life, and at one 

 end of the vast ladder of life they are much more mechanistic 

 and at the other much more holistic in character. They are 

 the bio-chemical wholes which we shall discuss just now. 



(5) The new entity x arising under (4) as a mixed 

 mechanistic-holistic type enters into combination with a new 

 factor of an immaterial psychic character, called Mind; and 

 this, the human type, effects a complete merger of the 



