Organisms and Their Origin 105 



berry plants, but itself always pushing on, un- 

 dying. 



Of all vital phenomena, except those of evolu- 

 tion itself, and those wrapped up with intelligence, 

 the processes of individual development are the 

 most impressive in relation to the question of mech- 

 anistic and vitalistic interpretation. 1 The physi- 

 ology of development is still in its infancy, and we 

 shall doubtless be able in the future to understand 

 better how one stage leads to another, but at pres- 

 ent the whole process, so obviously continuous, is 

 mysterious and baffling. We cannot picture how 

 the hereditary qualities maternal, paternal, and 

 ancestral lie in potentia in the microscopic fertil- 

 ized egg-cell; we know very little regarding the 

 stimulus that sets the process agoing, though Pro- 

 fessor Loeb's striking experiments on artificial 

 parthenogenesis are beginning to throw some light 

 on the problem; we do not understand the orderly, 

 correlated, regulated succession of events which 

 leads from apparent simplicity to obvious com- 

 plexity. We do not wonder at Sir Thomas 

 Browne writing in his "Religio Medici": "Those 

 strange and mystical transmigrations that I have 

 observed in silk-worms turned my philosophy 

 into divinity. There is in these works of nature, 

 which seem to puzzle reason, something divine; 



*See Hans Driesch, "The Science and Philosophy of the 

 Organism," London, 1908. 



