212 THE STORY OF LIFE'S MECHANISM. 



contains within itself the power of guiding this 

 play of chemical force in such a way as to give 

 rise to vital phenomena, and our search must be 

 not for chemical force, but for this guiding 

 principle. Our study of protoplasm has told us 

 clearly enough that we must find this guiding 

 principle in the interaction of the machinery 

 within the protoplasm. The microscope has told 

 us plainly that these fundamental principles are 

 based upon machinery. The cell division (repro- 

 duction) is apparently controlled by the centro- 

 some; the heredity by the chromosomes; the 

 constructive metabolism by the nucleus in general, 

 while the destructive metabolism is also seated in 

 the cell substance outside the nucleus. Whether 

 these statements are strictly accurate in detail 

 does not particularly affect the general conclusion. 

 It is clearly enough demonstrated that the activi- 

 ties of the protoplasmic body are dependent upon 

 the relation of its different parts. Although we 

 have got rid of the complicated machinery of 

 the organism in general, we are still confronted 

 with the machinery of the cell. 



But our analysis cannot, at present, go further. 

 Our knowledge of this machine has not as yet 

 enabled us to gain any insight as to its method 

 of action. We cannot yet conceive how this 

 machine controls the chemical and physical forces 

 at its disposal in such a way as to produce the 

 orderly result of life. The strict correlation 

 between the forces of the physical universe and 

 those manifested by this protoplasm tells us that 

 a transformation of energy occurs within it, but 

 of the method of that transformation we as yet 



