272 SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



themselves into the special structures of the organism 

 to which they belong. . . . On the one hand, it cannot 

 be in these proximate chemical compounds composing 

 organic bodies that this specific polarity dwells ; . . . 

 the occurrence of such endlessly varied forms would be 

 inexplicable. On the other hand, this property cannot 

 reside in what may be roughly distinguished as the 

 morphological units. The germ of every organism is 

 a microscopic cell, or a structureless blastema which 

 nevertheless exhibits vital activities. ... If, then, this 

 organic polarity can be possessed neither by the chemical 

 si. units nor the morphological units, we must conceive it as 



Herbert 



spencer's possessed by certain intermediate units which we may 



"physio- r 



unit?" term physiological. . . . We must conclude that in each 

 case some slight difference of composition in these units 

 . . . produces a difference in the form which the aggre- 

 gate of them assumes." 



Now, there are only two ways open to the purely 

 scientific thinker by which he can reach these inter- 

 mediate structures lying between the mathematical forms 

 of crystals or the molecular arrangement of atoms, and 

 the visible but apparently structureless forms of cells and 

 protoplasm. One of these is the still more advanced 

 analysis of these microscopic structures by still greater 

 powers of magnifying instruments ; the other is the 

 mathematical method of calculating from simple begin- 

 nings the complex forms of equilibrium which atoms or 

 molecules are capable of assuming under the action of 

 known forces. It appears unlikely that the powers of 

 the microscope can be much further extended ; and the 

 . mathematical calculation of even the simplest configur- 



