24 INDIVIDUALITY IN ORGANISMS 



to physico-chemical laws, and controls and orders the 

 physico-chemical factors in the organism to a definite 

 end or purpose. It constructs the organism as a 

 man constructs a machine. In many respects it 

 resembles human intelligence, but seems to be far 

 superior to it. Other neo-vitalistic theories are more 

 or less similar in their general conceptions, but differ 

 in detail. 



In certain respects these theories constitute a real 

 advance over the corpuscular theories, for they recog- 

 nize and state more or less clearly, instead of ignoring, 

 the essential problem. For the present, however, 

 most of us find little intellectual satisfaction in the solu- 

 tion which they offer, and they are either frankly specu- 

 lative or involve unwarranted or premature assumptions, 

 and, like the corpuscular theories, they place the prob- 

 lem beyond the bounds of science. 



Various attempts at solution or progress toward 

 solution of the problem of organic individuality have 

 been made along physico-chemical lines. The evident 

 unity and order, the individuality of the inorganic 

 crystal, together with the discovery of the existence of 

 fluid crystals, have led to comparisons of the organism 

 with the crystal and so to hypotheses which postulate 

 an essentially crystalline character for organic unity 

 and order. According to these hypotheses the laws 

 underlying this unity and order are essentially those 

 governing the aggregation and arrangement of mole- 

 cules. The construction of the orderly framework of 

 the organism is the expression of such laws, and its 

 activities represent the chemical changes which go on 

 in this framework. 



