30 THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE 



may hope for lenient treatment if tliey try to go somewhat 

 further along the path marked out by their forefathers. 

 Many earlier hypotheses of this type failed because too 

 much was claimed for them, either by their authors or hj 

 critics who wished to destroy them. Such was the case, for 

 instance, with Weismann 's speculations on biophores and 

 the architecture of the germ-plasm ; with those of Darwin 

 and De Vries on gemmules and pangens; and those of 

 Altmann on bioblasts and the general significance of the 

 protoplasmic granules. But we are not here concerned 

 with merely theoretical or a priori constructions but with 

 questions of fact that are forced on our attention by con- 

 crete microscopical and experimental studies on the cell. 

 It is our business as students of cytology and genetics to 

 answer these questions if we can. And lastly I would re- 

 mark that I am not here attempting to resuscitate the old 

 conception of the cell as an asseml)lage or colony of ele- 

 mentary organisms or primary vital units — perhaps it is 

 such, perhaps not — nor am I able to see how the possibili- 

 ties here considered are in any manner out of harmony 

 with the conception of the cell as a colloidal system. 



II 



We have, as it were (to return to Bergson's metaphor), 

 taken the cell to pieces. How shall we j^ut it together 

 again? In this second stage of our inquiry we first come 

 to closer quarters with the jDrol^lem of the physical basis 

 of life and encounter the unsolved riddle. We try to dis- 

 guise our ignorance in regard to it with learned phrases. 

 We are forever conjuring with the word "organization" 

 as a name for that which constitutes the integrating and 

 unifying principle in vital processes; but which one of 



