CHAPTER I 



THE CLASSICAL NOTION OF PHYSIOLOGICAL INDIVIDUALITY 



THE concept of the physical Self as a mere complex of 

 cells comes into collision with serious difficulties. We 

 may classify these like those of the evolutionary theories. 

 They are: difficulties relating to the general concept of 

 polyzoism; 1 those relating to the specific form of the 

 individual, to the building, the maintenance and the 

 repair of the organism; those relating to embryonic 

 and post-embryonic metamorphoses; and those relating 

 to the so-called supernormal physiology. 



I. DIFFICULTIES RELATING TO THE POLYZOlSi CONCEPT. 



The description given by Dastre 2 of physical 

 individuality is as follows. 



* We imagine the complex living being, whether 

 plant or animal, with its form that distinguishes 

 it from all others, as a populous city, distinguished 

 by a thousand traits from a neighbouring city. Its 

 elements are independent and autonomous by the 

 same title as the anatomical elements of the organism. 

 Each has in itself the springs of life, which it neither 

 borrows from its neighbours nor draws from the 

 community. All these inhabitants have a definite life, 

 and even breathe and are nourished after the same 

 manner, possessing all the same general human 

 faculties; but each has, over and above, his own 

 trade, industry, aptitudes, and talents by which he 

 contributes to the social life, and in his turn depends 



1 Polyzoism=a constitution similar to a colony of living cells or 

 animalcules. 



1 Dartre : La Vie et la Mori. 



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