CONCLUSIONS 479 



I have attempted to formulate, and to represent quantitatively, 

 many notions related to regulations and metabolisms that are 

 vaguely and partially present in the minds of all physiologists. In 

 these formulations, much may seem meaningless to the reader until 

 he independently searches for consistent patterns in whatever 

 organisms and components he is interested. Perhaps he too, realiz- 

 ing that each aspect of physiology is not a separate study, will help 

 to describe the organism as it now seems to be, looking for many 

 kinds of meaning in its being that way. To him it will be apparent 

 that all components and their preservation together are the con- 

 cern of the organism. 



As I examine the constancy of one after another of the proper- 

 ties of an individual, I realize how rarely the organism is defeated 

 in preserving its constitution. Though those several properties 

 seem individually difficult enough for the organism to manage, the 

 mutual compatibility among many or all is still more amazing. 

 Yet, the mutuality itself may be the secret of the organism's self- 

 preservation ; so long as a thousand properties are of consequence, 

 no one of them can fail to find its balance in the combination. 

 Though the representation of those relations upon paper may seem 

 clumsy, the innate pattern of the organism can only by contrast 

 seem elegant. For, the continuity of function and content is the 

 organism so far as the physiologist knows it. 



The investigation started with the question: What do animals 

 do to maintain their physiological constitutions and activities? 

 Detailed researches were required to answer it in the partial man- 

 ner shown. I believe the answer as given adequately represents 

 what can be done by methods and materials now at hand. In a 

 sentence it is that : Animals preserve their constitutions and activi- 

 ties like themselves, within the limits of variation that characterize 

 the normal, either by preventing disturbances from occurring, or 

 by compensating for each actual and incipient departure from nor- 

 mal. Every organism and every component has its own peculiar 

 equipment and its own correlated processes for doing this, but all 

 are similar in net action. The processes automatically adjust the 

 content or property to the characteristic norm, being provided in 

 every case both specifically and adequately. The physiological 

 provisions are such as can be classified, compared, and assessed. 

 That account seems to me to make regulations real as health and 

 inevitable as life. 



THE END 



