80 BIOLOGY AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES 



organism as a whole. The living body and 

 its physiological environment form an organic 

 whole, the parts of which cannot be under 

 stood in separation from one another. 



Our ordinary language as applied to life 

 corresponds with these characteristics. We 

 naturally speak of a living organism as an 

 autonomous active whole, and think of it as 

 such. The idea of its being a mechanism 

 made up of separable parts, and actuated by 

 external causes, is wholly unnatural to us, 

 and becomes more and more unnatural the 

 more we know about organisms. 



The concept we are using is radically 

 different from any physical concept : for in 

 conceiving what is living we do not separate 

 between matter or structure and its activity. 

 The structure itself is conceived as active 

 as alive. 



But the objection may be raised that this is 

 only a loose and inaccurate mode of thinking 

 and expression : for we know that the living 

 substance consists of nothing but matter, 

 though we do not yet know in what exact 

 form the atoms or molecules are combined. 

 This, it must be pointed out clearly, is simply 



