WHAT IS PHYSICAL LIFE 



among the metazoa begins, should virtu- 

 ally contain not only all the structural 

 peculiarities of the body of its parent with- 

 out variation from its hereditary pattern, 

 but should also have the power to deter- 

 mine where the untold millions of cells to 

 grow from it are to find their proper places 

 in the future adult body. What combina- 

 tion of physics and chemistry could pro- 

 duce this thing, when the inconceivably 

 complex internal make-up of such a micro- 

 cosm as that single primordial cell can- 

 not be conceived of even by metaphysi- 

 cians? 



But something by way of explanation 

 had to be attempted, and therefore vari- 

 ous theories have been propounded. Now 

 theories are as indispensable in scientific 

 construction as scaffolding is in the erec- 

 tion of a great building. The mistake, 

 then, would be to lay the solid facts we get 

 on the scaffolding instead of on the pre- 

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