BEYOND OUR COMPREHENSION II 



understanding. Such a thought as this must 

 recur to every one who is dealing with Nature's 

 problems. Let me give an example, one often 

 used. I have had to study, as have all doctors, 

 the process of healing. Here one sees how in 

 a short time after the infliction of a wound a 

 series of phenomena of wonderful beauty but 

 of great complexity are manifested. First, 

 blood, or some of its component parts, forms 

 a temporary stop-gap, filling up the wound 

 from top to bottom ; then the wounded tissues 

 in the immediate neighbourhood of such tem- 

 porary stop-gap begin to undergo change : they 

 multiply, forming new, embryonic, or imperfectly 

 developed tissues. After a time these young 

 tissues, at first pierced by numerous new blood- 

 vessels, become fully developed, and the gap 

 is filled up with permanent tissue. If we look 

 at these processes merely from the outside and 

 from the purely materialistic point of view, we 

 may say that these living cells multiplying and 

 forming new tissues are bringing about the heal- 

 ing of the wound. But are we much nearer any 

 explanation of what lies behind ? We are com- 



