NOT DUE TO SURROUNDING CONDITIONS, 



297 



duration of life varies remarkably in different seeds. It 

 seems not improbable that during the entire life of the seed, 

 though it live for centuries, vital changes are slowly taking 

 place. 



I have expressed the opinion that the different substances 

 and different structures produced by bioplasm at different 

 periods of development do not depend upon the different 

 surrounding conditions present when the changes occur. 

 Even if such a view could be entertained, it would not 

 account f(5r the facts. It would not be an explanation. 

 The "surrounding conditions" to which a mass of living 

 matter in a growing organism is exposed, as well as the 

 circumstances concerned in the production of these, are 

 complex. They are not simple external conditions, but the 

 conditions in question are in part the result of external cir- 

 cumstances, and are in part dependent upon a previous state 

 of things in the establishment of which pre-existing vital 

 powers, associated with bioplasm, played no unimportant 

 part. This sort of " explanation " completely breaks down 

 as soon as it is examined. 



It has been shown, in Part II, that the production of 

 formed matter is due to the death of living matter under 

 certain conditions, which is itself a highly complex phe- 

 nomenon, and cannot be explained without supposing 

 i. Certain internal forces capable of causing the elements 

 of the matter to arrange themselves in a certain definite 

 manner totally different from that in which the ordinary 

 forces of matter would cause these elements to be arranged; 

 and 2. Certain influences operating from without (i.e., sur- 

 rounding external conditions) tending to prevent the sup- 

 posed internal forces from exerting their sway. The 



