164 BIOLOGICAL LECTURES. 



totality the ''whole cause'' of the effect. Of these com- 

 ponents we often call those with the commencement of 

 which the effect begins {i.e., the last preceding event), the 

 cause of the effect, while the components which were previ- 

 ously and continuously present {i.e., the permanent facts), are 

 known as the preexisting conditions. This is, however, an arbi- 

 trary distinction, and one which is detrimental to our quest 

 for cotnplete knowledge. The essential point is this : A/l the 

 components of an effect must exist beforeJiaiid, but they need 

 not all ''begin'' immediately before. 



It seemed to me useful, in order to further the special aims 

 which we have in view, to introduce a different distinction of 

 cause and preexisting condition, although this distinction, too, 

 is somewhat arbitrary. 



I have called such components "causes," or, better, "spe- 

 cific CAUSES," " SPECIFIC COMPONENTS " of a process of organic 

 formation, as condition the "specific nature" of the process, 

 while the other components which are equally essential to the 

 starting in of the phenomena, but which, like heat and oxygen, 

 do not determine the character of the formation, were called 



"PREEXISTING CONDITIONS," "INDIFFERENT CAUSES," Or "IN- 

 DIFFERENT components" (ii). 



If our endeavors be directed not to the qualitative cause of 

 the phenomenon but only to the cause of the place, time, or 

 tnagnitude of the same, we must designate as "specific" causes 

 of these circumstatices those causes which condition the given 

 circumstance. 



The theory of this unequal participation of the components 

 in conditioning the specific nature of the resultant requires fur- 

 ther elaboration. 



Starting with the view of the different functions of the com- 

 ponents of the same process and consequently with a prefer- 

 ence for the components which condition the specific nature of 

 the phenomenon investigated, I have designated as "self- 

 differentiation " of the circumscribed or presumably circum- 

 scribed structure or part, that change, whose specific causes (in 

 the sense just defined) lie within the formal structure or part 

 itself; and this expression would be employed even when the 



