274 THEORETICAL BIOLOGY 



the protoplasm and the impulses, which dominate it, and on 

 which the direction devolves. 



THE FORM ACTION 



^, . ,. R MO AO EI , . , , , 



1 he form action = t ~ t ~ t ~ > which we observed 



in unicellulars, is remarkable in that here the effectors are 

 formed anew each time under our very eyes, before the real 

 action begins. Here, apparently, the forming of framework 

 enters into the action, whether it be the forming of pseudo- 

 podia in amoebae or of digestive apparatus in the Infusoria. 

 In the course of this, the direction reveals itself as an inde- 

 pendent process, having its own rhythm. This rhythm is 

 especially obvious in the successive formation of mouth, 

 stomach, etc. in the case of the Infusoria. The rhythm is 

 affected, indeed, but not created, by the excitation proceeding 

 from the receptors. The impulses bringing about the forma- 

 tion of framework must be connected together by a rule of 

 their own into a unified imperative, in the same way that 

 the handles which an engineer puUs in reversing the levers 

 of some steam-engine must follow a fixed rule. But the 

 directing of the organism does not lie in the hands of a being 

 standing outside ; it is entrusted to the protoplasm from 

 which the whole machine has proceeded, and which, from the 

 initial constructing of thereof, reveals a rule of its own. 



R MO AOt E 



THE INSTINCTIVE ACTION = j — j — — j 



The form action of unicellulars, characterised by alteration 

 of the external or internal shape of the animal, is distin- 

 guished by the release of the action being reflex-like, while 

 its performance follows laws of its own, influenced, but not 

 created, by the process of excitation. Accordingly, the 



