278 CELL INTELLIGENCE THE CAUSE OF EVOLUTION 



merely a chemical action or blind force which guides and 

 directs the cell in the construction of plant or animal, to- 

 wit : After the cell has started to build a plant or animal 

 and it has multiplied into a bunch of say 15 to 100 individ- 

 uals and they have arranged themselves in their proper 

 places and begun the building of the different parts, if you 

 then mix them up and flatten them out, disorganize and 

 dislocate them, they will again scurry around and find their 

 places and go on with the work as soon as possible. In 

 reference to this Wilson states : "To both these tenden- 

 cies is related the growth-process to which the future 

 embryo will owe its form and every attempt to explain 

 the position of the cells and the direction of cleavage 

 must reckon with the morphological process taken as 

 a whole not merely a cell, dividing under the stress of 

 rude mechanical conditions ; it is beyond this, a builder 

 who lays one stone here, another there, each of which 

 is placed with reference to future development. Yet such 

 eggs when released of pressure continue to segment with- 

 out re-arrangement of the nuclei and give rise to perfect, 

 normal larvae." 



Driesh and Hartwig say, "The cells produced by cleav- 

 age are completely equivalent and indifferent and they 

 may be thrown about like balls in a pile without the least 

 degree impairing thereby the normal power of develop- 

 ment." 



It seems to me this should settle the question as to 

 whether the actions of the cell are guided by intelligence 

 or whether by merely blind chemical force. If you tear 

 down an ant hill it will again be rebuilt. The same will 

 be done if a wind or some other cause tear down struc- 

 tures produced and occupied by man. Structures pro- 

 duced or torn down by the blind forces will not be re- 

 built. Notice that the author stated that the builder, the 



