THE GENESIS OF LIVING ORGANISMS 193 



spread itself over the building-stones as they increased in 

 number. 



Why is it that, in spite of Driesch's discoveries, men of 

 science stiU cling to this idea of the hidden framework or 

 micro-mosaic in the germ-ceU ? Seemingly only because they 

 are unable to imagine a life-process otherwise than as per- 

 formed by a mechanism. So in the genesis of a new 

 mechanism they are obliged to look for a hidden system of 

 mechanics to explain what takes place. 



THE CHEMICAL HYPOTHESIS 



If we consider more closely the signs of genesis in our 

 implements (even if they be merely joins delimiting the genetic 

 building-stones, or other genetic characteristics, such as the 

 rough rim on the china plate, or the brush-strokes on oil- 

 paintings, and the like), they always tell us about a process 

 that is over and done with, a process having no relation 

 to the function of the finished article. We learn from these 

 signs that in the manufacture of an implement certain 

 distinct processes were necessary, which were connected 

 together in conformity with a plan. 



The same is true of the signs of genesis in organisms. The 

 most striking, i.e. the navel of mammals, indicates an import- 

 ant event which took place during birth. But in the same 

 way, all the others, — from the repetition of the same number 

 of cervical vertebrae in the Mammalia down to the microscopic 

 delimitation of the cells one from another, — tell us of a long 

 series of processes, interlocking in accordance with plan, be it 

 the process of ceU-division, or that of the division into germinal 

 areas, which determines whether an animal is to be of the 

 radiate or the bilateral type. 



Direct observation of the genesis of each animal from 

 the first division of the germ onwards, confirms this impres- 



N 



