lo LIFE : OUTLINES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 



when we add to all we know of vital processes the available contri- 

 butions of cheniLstr>- and physics; and thus biologists have tended, 

 if not to shirk analysis by sfxlling Life with a capital, at any rate 

 to be too easily satisfied with regarding the living creature now as 

 an historically developed being, or again as a psycho-physical 

 individuality. Yet such interpretations are regarded by the extreme 

 bio-mechanists as no l)etter than any other anthropomorphic 

 notions. This is another reason, then, for a careful consideration 

 of the characteristics of the organism. 



PERSISTENCE IN SPITE OF CEASELESS CHANGE.— The 



s>'mlx)l of the organism is the burning bush of old; it is all afire, 

 but it is nnt consumed; fux tamen consumcbatur. The peculiarity 

 is not that the organism is in continual flux, for chemical change 

 Is the rule of the world; the characteristic feature is that the changes 

 in the organism are so regulated that the integrity of the system is 

 sustained for a longer or shorter period. That excellent physiologist. 

 Sir Michael lM>ster, used to say that "a living body is a vortex of 

 chemical and molecular change"; and the image of a vortex ex- 

 press«*s the fundamental fact of persistence, in spite of continual flux. 

 Here it is fitting to quote one of the classic passages in modem 

 biological litrrature, what Huxley said of the vital vortex in his 

 Crayfish (iSSo, p. 84): 



"The parallel Ixtween a whirlpool in a stream and a living being, 

 which has often In-en drawn, is as just as it is striking. The whirl- 

 jviol is ixTinanent, but the particles of water which constitute it 

 are incessantly rli.inging. Those which enter it, on the one side, 

 are whirled around and temporarily constitute a part of its indi- 

 viduality; and as they leave it on the other side, their places are 

 made g<KKl by new-comers. 



"Thos<- who have .s<^en the wonderful whirlpool, three miles below 

 the I'alls of Niagara, will not have forgotten the hcapcd-up wave 

 which tumbles and tosses, a very embodiment of restless energy, 

 where xhv swift stream hurrying from the Falls is compelled to 

 make a sudden turn towards Uike Ontario. However changeful is 

 the contour of this crest, this wave has been visible, approximately 

 in the .same place, and with the .same general form, for centuries 

 past. Seen from a mile off, it would appear to be a stationary 

 hillock of water. Viewed clos<'ly, it is a \.y\)\czi\ expression of the 

 conflicting impulses generated by a swift rush of material particles. 



"Now. with all our appliances, we cannot get within a good 

 many miles, so to spak. of the crayfish. If we could, we should 

 .sec that it was nothing but the constant form of a similar turmoil 

 of material molecules which are constantly flowing into the animal 

 on the one side, and streaming out on the other." 



The comparison has great force and utility; it vivifies the fimda- 



