ON THE MORPHOLOGICAL VIEW OF NATURE. 271 



a form peculiar to them, we may apply this word to 

 the analogous force displayed by organic units. But 

 polarity is but a name for something of which we are 

 ignorant. Nevertheless, in default of another word we 

 must employ this. ... It will be well to ask what 

 these units are which possess the property of arranging 



review of these theories, given by 

 M. Yves Delage, a very prominent 

 position is accordingly assigned to 

 Herbert Spencer's biological writ- 

 ings. In fact, he says (' L'HeVedite,' 

 p. 424 note): "Ici" i.e., in the 

 ' Principles of Biology ' " est 

 montree, pour la premiere fois 

 et avec une lucidite" .parfaite, 

 1'utilite de concevoir des particules 

 speciales, elements primitifs de la 

 substance vivante, intermediaries 

 aux molecules et aux cellules. Les 

 tres nombreux auteurs qui ont 

 utilise* la meme ide"e n'en ont 

 cre"e que des variantes. Spencer 

 est le vrai pere de la conception 

 initiale, si feconde com me on le 

 verra." And again (ibid., p. 836) : 

 " Brusquement, avec H. Spencer, 

 on torn be en plein moderne. Ici 

 plus de theories vieillottes, plus 

 de proce'de's surannes. . . . Les 

 phenomenes sont decomposes en 

 leurs Elements avec une puissance 

 d'abstraction qu'aucun philosophe 

 n'a de'passe'e, des principes ge"ner- 

 aux sont deduits qui servent a leur 

 tour a juger, a interpreter les 

 phenomenes, a les ramener a leurs 

 causes vraies. Comme resultat de 

 ses meditations, Spencer nous 

 offre les 'Unites physiologiques,' 

 particules materielles toutes iden- 

 tiques dans une meme espece 

 d'etres avec lesquelles il croit 

 que 1'organisme doit pouvoir se 

 const ruire de lui-meme, par lej seul 

 jeu de leurs forces uioleculaires. 

 ... II a ... ouvert une voie : 

 sa theorie est un des bras prin- 

 cipaux du Delta de ce fleuve 



qui nous servait de terme de com- 

 paraison." The other great arm 

 of the Delta is Darwin's theory of 

 Pangenesis, on which see infra, 

 chapter xii. of this volume. Of 

 others, such as Erlsberg, Haeckel, 

 His, Haacke, M. Delage says : "Us 

 ont reussi seuleinent a montrer 

 qu'en substituant aux forces polaires 

 des ' Unite's physiologiques,' des 

 formes de mouvement ou des 

 proprietes geometriques, on n'arrive 

 pas a un meilleur resultat. " Prof. 

 Haeckel in his ' Generelle Mor- 

 phologie' (1866) has interpolated 

 a special investigation, as it were, 

 between the morphology of living 

 things and the corresponding 

 science of inorganic or purely 

 physical (such as crystalline and 

 chemical) structures and arrange- 

 ment under the name " Pro- 

 morphology," investigating with 

 much ingenuity all manner of 

 symmetrical, axial, radial, &c., 

 configurations. J. Arthur Thom- 

 son ('Science of Life,' p. 84) re- 

 marks that little attention has 

 been paid to this subject since, 

 but, as stated above (p. 223 note), 

 the systematic treatment of crys- 

 tallography has all through the 

 century appeared to biologists as 

 an enticing and seductive model, 

 and M. Yves Delage's great work 

 gives many examples of this tend- 

 ency see, e.g., his remarks on the 

 theories of Haacke, Cope, Niigeli, 

 Erlsberg, and many others, pp. 

 304, 315, 424, 441, 451, 459, 475, 

 495, 502, 593, 743, &c. 



