650 LIFE : OUTLINES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 



AUTONOMY NOT INCONSISTENT WITH CONTINUITY.— 



Care must be taken with the term "autonomy" — dangerous both in 

 theory and practice. It is justifiable in theory when we are dealing 

 with an order of facts which we cannot describe satisfactorily with- 

 out using special formulae or categories. When we pass from non- 

 living things to living organisms there is an intrinsic newness; a 

 fresh aspect of reality has emerged. But this newness must not be 

 exaggerated into discontinuity. A living body is usually built up of 

 thousands of coherent cells, and it may be that this cohesion of 

 cells to form a body is a continuation of the aggregating and inte- 

 grating tendencies which we recognise in electrons and protons 

 becoming atoms, in atoms becoming molecules, in molecules becom- 

 ing groups of molecules. Some of the properties of life depend on 

 the fact that living matter is in a colloidal state, that is to say, it 

 consists of innumerable ultra-microscopic particles suspended in a 

 fluid phase, or droplets immersed in a jelly-like matrix, with the 

 result that there is a very large surface on which chemical and 

 physical changes may take place. We may think of a drop of fluid 

 protoplasm as like a vast archipelago of islands with a correspond- 

 ingly large coast-line for traffic. But it must be kept in mind that 

 many inorganic substances, even gold, may occur in the colloidal 

 state. Organisms are by themselves apart; but they are not alien to 

 the cosmosphere. We must not jettison continuity of evolution in 

 our desire to emphasise autonomy. 



Much that goes on in plant or animal can be described in terms 

 of chemistry and physics, and this mode of analysis has been richly 

 rewarded. It may be called, with Comte, a legitimate materialism. 

 But to say that vital activity in its wholeness can be satisfactorily 

 described in terms of chemistry and physics is not at present an 

 accurate statement. It is an inaccurate false simplicity. Perhaps it 

 may be said that this is an argumcntum ad tgnoratttiam', for the 

 satisfactory mechanistic description may be forthcoming some years 

 hence. But is this not another kind of argnmentum ad ignorantiam} 

 We must make our balance-sheet for the scientific firm as its affairs 

 stand at the time; we cannot make assets out of possibilities. But 

 perhaps it will be said that the chemistry and physics of 2030 will 

 be as different from those of to-day as these from those of 1830. 

 This is likely enough, but perhaps that will in part be because 

 Science has read back into the cosmosphere the lessons learned 

 from a study of the biosphere. But sufficient unto the day are the 

 problems thereof, and while we are pleading for a frank and full 

 recognition of the chemistry and physics of the living body, we are 

 not pretending that we can arrive in this way at more than a very 

 partial understanding of, say, our dog or horse. 



MECHANISTIC AND VITALISTIC VIEWS.— In the long- 



