Vitality and Organization of Frotoplasm. 61 



of protoplasmic individuals of a low order of development. The labor- 

 ious task remains to apply it in detail to successively higher forms of 

 life, whereby accurate inferences from comparative anatomy and com- 

 parative ontogeny may possibly yield the desired knowledge; for, of 

 course, the problem is at the bottom one of phyletic evolution. 



Xot to overrate the kind of information we have been here gathering 

 from directly observable phenomena, it is well to remind ourselves here 

 again that chemical constitution with its specific configurations and 

 most specific" modes of reaction is a creative datum transcending, ,scieii- 

 tmq explanation. We can not explain why and how a complex of sim- 

 ple elements of a few well known inorganic substances come to be en- 

 dowed with the potential power of forming by intricate modes of com- 

 bination with one another an innumerable host of complex organic 

 substances, each specifically distinguished from others, often by aston- 

 ishingly different properties, as is strikingly exemplified by the hydro- 

 carbons. It stands to reason that the infinitely more complex and mani- 

 fold constitution of what is collectively called protoplasm or the living 



. substance, phyletically elaborated during" ages upon ages of interaction 

 with the various influences of the medium; it stands to reason that this 



! phyletic substance will display correspondingly complex and developed 

 modes of specific reaction. The combining and reacting potencies of 

 what we perceive as protoplasm are intrinsic properties of its chemical 

 constitution, though incited to activity, and influenced- in taking special 

 developmental directions by the interacting agencies of the medium. 

 To add to our explanatory perplexities we have, furthermore, to acknowl- 

 edge that all these wonders of chemical constitution and reaction are 

 only symbolically revealed in terms of our own sensorial perception, 

 and especially of our visual awareness. However, the relation of con- 

 sciousness to perceptible nature is an epistemological problem only to be 

 indicated, but not discussed in this biological treatise. 



GER:\I-rLASM AXD ITS ORGANIZATIOX. 



From numerous and varied experiments with eggs of EchinidiB 

 Driesch felt justified in concluding that egg-plasm possesses normally 

 the character of an organization; but that, after disturbances had upset 

 the normally organized arrangement, every not too minute portion or 

 amount of egg-plasm retained, nevertheless, the power to reproduce 

 the complete, though proportionally reduced form of the embryo. It 

 follows therefrom, in opposition to the theory of a preformed mosaic of 

 definite germinal units, that not only "segmentation mosaic need not 

 be mosaic of potentialities," but also that distinct potentialities do not 

 inhere in specific germinal units. This astonishing discovery is of ut^ 

 most importance to the science of life. It carries with it the strongest 

 proof of the utter futility of trying to explain vital phenomena in ac- 

 cordance with purely mechanical principles. And it reveals also the 

 inept superficiality of the mere mechanistic view of organization. It 

 renders certain, on the other hand, that not only germs as a whole, but 



