INTRODUCTORY 25 



Each one in his particular subject has been so completely 

 occupied with his part of the whole that he has not taken 

 time to summarize or comprehend life as a whole. It 

 makes me think about the story of the five blind men who 

 went to see what the elephant was like. One put his 

 hands on the elephant's side ; one put his arm around his 

 leg; one got hold of his trunk; one took hold of his tail. 

 As they were all blind and did not take time to feel of the 

 whole animal, no one of them had any really correct idea 

 of what the elephant was like. The one who got him by 

 the leg thought he was like a tree, and the one who got 

 him by the trunk thought he was like a snake, and the 

 one that got him by the tail thought he was like a rope. 

 It all depended on what place they had felt of him, and 

 as their experiences were all different they never agreed 

 as to what the elephant was like and never could ; while 

 a man who could see and had seen the whole elephant, 

 could clearly hear from their discussion that they were 

 all wrong. It appears to be similar with the scientists 

 today. Each one feeling only of a certain spot is not com- 

 petent to tell what life as a whole really is. 



There are certain things that we all can see, that the 

 microscope has revealed to us as clearly and as certainly 

 as the food we eat and the clothes we wear. That is to 

 say, it is undisputed that these microscopic animals exist. 

 We find them as living, single, separate, animals or beings 

 in both salt and fresh water. Every drop of water taken 

 from ocean or pond contains one or more of them. It is 

 undisputed that these beings build from the material at 

 hand all the structures we see and know as plants and 

 animals. Upon this base of facts admitted, we can and 

 should be able to agree as to the cause of development in 

 life, inheritance and instinctive action. Beyond these 

 facts, we do not yet know the inner life of the cell itself. 



