LIFE AS MECHANISM 



veloping differently to form the various parts and to 

 give the aggregation a homogeneous entity which we 

 call the organism. 



It is no casual separation of our ideas into the 

 physical, biological, and psychological realms. The 

 physical world is a combination of substances acting 

 according to a certain set of laws of force and energy, 

 the biological world is composed of the same sub- 

 stances, but the laws of action are not the same. They 

 have, however, this great principle in common ; they, 

 both, are limited by time and space. Then, somehow to 

 the biological world an added principle is given that 

 we can call consciousness which is not material but is 

 associated with matter and which is not limited by 

 time and space. To the present time, at least, these 

 three realms are to us incommensurable and we have 

 made no progress in measuring or explaining one by 

 the other. 



When growth, physical and hyperphysical, has 

 been attained there invariably comes a time when 

 this governing principle, or biotic force, loses its con- 

 trol, the organism dies and the cells return to their 

 physical state. The discussion whether the biotic and 

 psychological actions persist or are inseparable from 

 the body is, in my opinion, academic as we have 

 found no rational or observational method by which 

 to attack the problem. 



There are some symptoms that the biologists, them- 

 selves, are waking up to the fact that they have sub- 



i: 285 1 



