CONFORMITY WITH PLAN 271 



things, or is there also a super-mechanical law, for which we 

 wish to introduce the term ' conformity with plan ' ? " Are 

 the processes in conformity with plan, which we study in 

 the living world, connected solely with the rules of a 

 mechanical working that has been there from the very be- 

 ginning, or are they controlled by rules of function embracing 

 not only the working but also its guidance ? 



To advance as far as possible by means of the more simple 

 assumption is entirely in accord with the scientific method 

 of thought. But it is not scientific to make of the simpler 

 assumption an article of faith that excludes other assumptions. 

 Those investigators were right who demanded of the vitalists, 

 " Show us the point at which a super-mechanical activity 

 begins to supersede control by the mechanical. Until then, 

 we must refuse to admit a super-mechanical factor." 



In the case of the genesis of the living organism, this 

 requirement has now been met, and as clearly as could be 

 wished. We have demonstrated the coming into activity of a 

 super-mechanical factor in the genes, which are lodged in 

 the nuclear substance of the germ, and we have called this 

 factor " impulse." It only remains now to investigate the 

 effect of the impulses on the actions of the fully formed animal. 



IMPULSES IN THE ACTIONS 



From the genesis of animals . we have learnt that the 

 general, fundamental principle is this — where new framework 

 is formed, there a super-mechanical factor is in action. 

 Accordingly, all we have to do is to determine in what actions 

 new framework originates ; and we are then in a position to 

 say, " At this point an impulse must come in." The possibility 

 of forming new framework is given in every organism every- 

 where and at all times, because in every cell part of the 

 unincorporated germinal substance remains in the protoplasm 



