10 INTRODUCTORY [ch. 



tion among living things. The waves of the sea, the little ripples 

 on the shore, the sweeping curve of the sandy bay between the 

 headlands, the outline of the hills, the shape of the clouds, all these 

 are so many riddles of form, so many problems of morphology, and 

 all of them the physicist can more or less easily read and adequately 

 solve: solving them by reference to their antecedent phenomena, 

 in the material system of mechanical forces to which they belong, 

 and to which we interpret them as being due. They have also, 

 doubtless, their immanent teleological significance; but it is on 

 another plane of thought from the physicist's that we contemplate 

 their intrinsic harmony* and perfection, and "see that they are 

 good." 



Nor is it otherwise with the material forms of living things. Cell 

 and tissue, shell and bone, leaf and flower, are so many portions of 

 matter, and it is in obedience to the laws of physics that their 

 particles have been moved, moulded and conformedf. They are no 

 exception to the rule that Qeos aet yeajjjLerpeL. Their problems of 

 form are in the first instance mathematical problems, their problems 

 of growth are essentially physical problems, and the morphologist is, 

 ipso facto, a student of physical science. He may learn from that 

 comprehensive science, as the physiologists have not failed to do, 

 the point of view from which her problems are approached, the 

 quantitative methods by which they are attacked, and the whole- 

 some restraints under which all her work is done. He may come 

 to realise that there is no branch of mathematics, however abstract, 

 which may not some day be applied to phenomena of the real 



* What I understand by "holism" is what the Greeks called apfiovia. This is 

 something exhibited not only by a lyre in tune, but by all the handiwork of 

 craftsmen, and by all that is " put together" by art or nature. It is the " composite- 

 ness of any composite whole"; and, like the cognate terms KpSicns or (rvvdeais, implies 

 a balance or attunement. Cf. John Tate, in Class. Review, Feb. 1939. 



t This general principle was clearly grasped by Mr George Rainey many years 

 ago, and expressed in such words as the following: "It is illogical to suppose that 

 in the case of vital organisms a distinct force exists to produce results perfectly 

 within the reach of physical agencies, especially as in many instances no end could 

 be attained were that the case, but that of opposing one force by another capable 

 of effecting exactly the same purpose." (On artificial calculi, Q.J. M.S. {Trans. 

 Microsc. Soc), vr, p. 49, 18.58.) Cf. also Helmholtz, infra cit. p. 9. (Mr George 

 Rainey, a man of learning and originality, was demonstrator of anatomy at 

 St Thomas's; he followed that modest calling to a great age, and is remembered 

 by a few old pupils with peculiar affection.) 



