EVIDENCE PROVING THE STATEMENT OF THE CASE 51 



of the most complex order, and the secretions of 

 those cells. These are some of the common physical 

 phenomena. How is it possible for the science of 

 mathematics to enter upon such reactions ? The line 

 between the inorganic and the organic has ceased. It 

 was a delusion. And the physicist would interpret 

 the complex phenomena in nature by variations to the 

 if- power, by angles, by sines, and co-sines, and all 

 these rigid formulae. What a grave error ! Nature 

 abhors the rigid. 



Other beings equally intelligent as the physicist see 

 the folly of attempting to explain Natural phenomena 

 by these rigid lines, but the physicist is aggressive, 

 so much so as to call for the following protest from 

 Professor W. A. Herdman, in his Presidential Address 

 (Zoological Section) at the same British Association 

 meeting, Ipswich : " I must emphatically protest 

 against the idea which has been suggested, that only 

 by such mathematical and statistical methods of study 

 can we successfully determine the influence of the 

 environment on species, gauge the utility of specific 

 characters, and throw further light upon the origin of 

 species." 



But the physicist must clearly see that his rigid 

 system cannot apply. Professor Hicks, in his address, 

 states, "Unfortunately the mathematical difficulties 

 connected with the discussion of these motions, 

 especially the reactions of one on another, 1 have 



1 No doubt minute objects atoms, and molecules, react upon each 

 other according to definite laws, but when it is attempted to mathe- 

 matically measure these motions, the effort is obviously futile, 

 impossible. This is the more certain when it is found impossible to 

 do so with only three objects. (See page 47.) When we consider 



E 2 



