196 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [April, 



III. The Organism and the Stage at which it is to be 

 Classified. 



For purposes of phylogenetic classificatiou it is perhaps best to 

 regard " organism " as synonymous with " individual " — i. e., the 

 largest disassociated whole. Yet under the idea of ' ' organism ' ' 

 have been grouped living imits of different values, just as we have 

 seen to be the case with the idea of " individual." And on this 

 account it is necessary to see what these degrees of organisms are, 

 and why a particular degree of organism should be made synony- 

 mous with a particular degree of individual. 



In a multicellular animal parts of a cell have been regarded as 

 organisms. Thus Altmann has considered certain granules, which 

 according to him compose the living substance, to be each of them 

 separate organisms, so that the cell would represent a symbiotic 

 state of many organisms.^ The centrosome is frequently spoken 

 of as an organism, and by Eisen the nucleus, the cytoplasm and 

 the attraction sphere have been regarded as three distinct organisms 

 in a state of symbiosis. Chromosomes, by those who have cor- 

 roborated the original position of Boveri, are looked upon as 

 cellular individuals, though it is recognized that th-ese elements 

 stand in intimate functional connection with the rest of the cell. 

 But what concerns us here most particularly is the standpoint of 

 those who consider the multicellular animal to be an aggregate of 

 organisms, the cells ; and the view which regards an Annelid to be 

 composed of a chain of organisms, its metameres or segments, or a 

 Cestode to be made up of a row of organisms, its proglottids. 



Now these various degrees or kinds of " organisms " would not 

 be so confused if a distinction were drawn sharply between 

 "organism" and "element of an organism." Under " organ- 

 ism " we should Ihen understand " the largest disassociated whole," 

 and its parts, as organs, tissues, cells or parts of cells, would be the 

 ' ' elements ' ' which compose it. Whitman in his paper. The 

 Inadequacy of the Cell- Theory of Development, has pointed this 

 out most incisively. There he shows that structure is dependent 

 upon the genei'al organization, not upon the particular nature of 

 the^cell components; acellular and cellular organs may be com - 



3 That the protoplasm of the cell is an aggregate of miaute but visible 

 separate granules, as Altmana endeavored to prove, has not been cor- 

 roborated by the more careful studies on the cell. 



