CONCLUSION 



suggested that ecto-endoplasmic differentiation is a factor 

 in evolution. 



Thus briefly the argument in favor of my theory of the 

 ectoplasm. Let it be clearly understood, however, that 

 the theory in no wise invalidates the conception of the 

 protoplasmic system as the unit of the state of being alive. 

 Rather, the whole argument upon which the theory rests 

 aims at encompassing this conception in a fuller and more 

 complete fashion than hitherto was possible. Because of 

 the up to now existing failure to assign to ectoplasmic 

 behavior a role in the integrative action of the living system, 

 it has been necessary to emphasize what this role is. I 

 wish very clearh' again to state my position: life resides in 

 the whole of the protoplasmic system taken as a unit — the 

 phenomena of life are not to be dissociated from the integra- 

 tion of the system's constituent regions, the integration 

 which is the basic manifestation of the state of being alive. 



While life rests in the protoplasmic system as a unit, 

 life is not static, is not structure only, but is the sum-total 

 of activities; protoplasmic organization or integration, 

 therefore, means orderly reactions as surely as it means 

 space-distributions of the protoplasmic components. We 

 may never come to know what life really is, but if we do 

 approach such knowledge, it will be through appreciation 

 of activities which constitute the protoplasmic integration; 

 these we learn by their expression. Life is not confined to 

 nucleus only and certainly not to constituent genes; nor 

 yet does it reside in the ectoplasm alone. The significance 

 of the ectoplasm is that it gives visible expression to these 

 activities. 



On the one side ever}' living thing tends to fixity and 

 rigidity, resistant to change. This tendency aids to pre- 

 serve individual integrity which hands over intact from 

 generation to generation the character of the organism. 

 In the protoplasmic system the nucleus represents this 



3<^3 



