GENERAL ADAPTATION 19 



matter also exists between organ and function. 

 The priority of the former or the latter is often 

 discussed, but when the question is propounded 

 in that form it is not satisfactorily answered ; 

 the confusion arises through only denning its 

 mental representations, instead of denning the 

 thing itself. 



Organ and function are two entities which exist 

 separately as mere abstractions of the intelligence, 

 but in Nature they are one. We say this to enable 

 our readers more fully to realise the extent of the 

 theory of adaptation. Instead of organ and func- 

 tion we ought to speak of organisation, and then 

 the two concepts are represented as a unity, for 

 it is much easier to follow their modifications when 

 they are considered as one thing, obedient to one 

 and the same impulse, than as a duality which does 

 not really exist, and only complicates the interpre- 

 tation. Let us lay aside all these arbitrary divisions, 

 which .were established when the solidarity of 

 phenomena was not known, and the classifications 

 could not be other than purely abstract. Thus the 

 terms force and matter are still used, even by those 

 who, like Louis Biichner, proclaim the unity of these 

 two terms ; and people also speak of physics and 

 chemistry, and biology and sociology ; and all these 

 divisions increase the confusion and retard the 

 spread of the monistic theory. 



