THE GENESIS OF LIVING ORGANISMS 187 



We should be able to say exactly which groups of 

 elementary stones are to be accounted genetic, and which 

 morphological, because we can control the actions of both 

 builder and user. We know that the construction and the 

 running of what is constructed are two totally different events, 

 and so we do not need to seek for special signs of genesis and 

 signs of function in order to prove the existence of two funda- 

 mentally different processes. 



But when we turn to implements about the manufacture 

 of which we know nothing, and especially when we consider 

 prehistoric finds, we are forced to go seeking for signs of 

 genesis, in order to acquire some idea of the way in which 

 they were prepared. And that is truer still when we turn to 

 living things. 



MORPHOLOGY 



We may briefly define morphology as the science of the 

 signs of genesis, for its task is to analyse organisms, not into 

 their functional, but into their genetic building-stones. By 

 homology is understood the interrelations of these genetic 

 building-stones ; by analogy, the relations of the functional. 



Much that has hitherto appeared mysterious in mor- 

 phology will now become comprehensible. There is no mor- 

 phology of implements as there is of organisms ; this is partly 

 explained by the fact that implements are not constructed, 

 as organisms are, from similar primary elements, and conse- 

 quently are not derivable from shiftings, in accordance with 

 law, of the same primordial mosaic. This, however, is only 

 one reason for the seemingly mysterious fact. The second 

 reason lies deeper. All implements are made by a constructor 

 standing outside, whereas all organisms arise from a germ set 

 in a fixed position in space, a germ which has an immovable 

 place within the structures arising out of it. 



All implements are made by external agencies ; all 



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