THE PROBLEM 5 



tially in such correlation is the scientific method, that 

 of experimental analysis and synthesis of data. Only in 

 this way is there any possibility of determining whether 

 or not the mechanistic conception is adequate. My 

 own experiments, together with the experimental and 

 observational data already at hand, point the way toward 

 a conception of organic unity which is somewhat different 

 from current views, but still entirely mechanistic, and 

 which, as I believe, makes possible further advance 

 toward a solution of the problem. 



UNITY AND ORDER IN THE LIFE OF THE INDIVIDUAL 



Life in general consists of the life-histories of indi- 

 viduals. Individuals arise from other individuals, 

 undergo a more or less definite and orderly series of 

 changes known as development, usually reproduce new 

 individuals in a more or less orderly way, and either 

 undergo complete physiological disintegration into new 

 individuals in the process of reproduction or else finally 

 lose their unity by the cessation of their activity in 

 death. 



The definitiveness and constancy, the degree of order 

 in the behavior of the individual as regards the morpho- 

 logical and physiological relations of its parts in space 

 and the sequence of the changes during its life, must 

 be considered as, to some extent at least, a criterion of 

 the degree of unity or individuality which it possesses. 

 In the simplest individuals order is scarcely apparent; 

 it is sometimes difficult to determine whether a particular 

 aggregation of protoplasmic substance is an individual in 

 the biological sense or merely an aggregation. Again, 

 in some cases a given order is local or temporary and is 



