68 NATIONAL TRENDS IN BIOLOGY 



eral decades forcing its way into technical biology under 

 the name "the organismal" or "organismal conception." 

 A highly significant thing that is happening at present in 

 connection with this conception is its almost entirely in- 

 dependent growth in some half dozen subdivisions of 

 the biological realm. 



"The reach of the conception with its implications, 

 into the sciences of not-living nature, into psychology, 

 and into the domain of thought which has for many cen- 

 turies been supposed to belong exclusively to philosophy, 

 is certainly immense, though no one yet can tell exactly 

 how far, or exactly what its effects will be. 



"But what some of its most far-reaching consequences 

 are to be is rather definitely foreshadowed. It will bring 

 about a much sharper distinction between materialism 

 and naturalism than has hitherto been grasped. 



"Another result closely connected with this will be 

 the recognition that man belongs wholly, i.e., with no 

 aspect of his being excepted, to the realm of nature. 



"When the most distinctive characteristics of present- 

 day civilization are viewed in the light of the psycho- 

 biological matters touched upon here, I believe it must 

 be concluded that man can never benefit to the full from 

 the combination of his reason with his aesthetic, his 

 ethical, and his religious emotions, until he recognizes 

 these to be part and parcel of himself as a natural being." 



And here is another statement: 



"The most thoughtful biologists are Vitalistic, or lean 

 strongly toward it. As a matter of fact, some who call 



