THE DOGMA OF EVOLUTION 



study only the separate cells, for each has its separate 

 individuality. Could there be a more inadequate or 

 futile idea than to suppose an adult man is contained 

 in the single cell from which he originates or that the 

 multitude of cells of his body has each a separate 

 identity? The cell is a relatively simple physical 

 body, composed of a number of chemical elementary 

 substances combined together in, to us, a complex 

 fashion. But it has one distinguishing feature which, 

 to one who does not believe in a mechanistic or ma- 

 terialistic philosophy, makes it distinct from the phys- 

 ical world; it is alive; it contains potentially the 

 power of developing into an adult organism which 

 carries on, in the main, the distinguishing character- 

 istics of the ancestral bodies of which it was once a 

 part. This governing principle, call it spirit, hyper- 

 physical force, biotic force, or what you will, governs 

 and regulates the cell's growth and is so certain in its 

 action that the development to an organism similar 

 to its ancestor never fails; the cell of the oak tree 

 must become an oak tree or nothing. It divides the 

 cell into new ones and arranges them in definite order 

 so as to produce a predetermined form and to carry 

 on predetermined functions. From the confused wel- 

 ter of substances which makes the environment of the 

 cell, it selects just those kinds in proper proportions 

 which the cell needs and combines them with uner- 

 ring accuracy. It provides and maintains a nexus be- 

 tween the cells, so that they react on one another, de- 



