ORGANIC EVOLUTION — THE FACTORS 61 



" On the one hand, it cannot be in those proximate 

 chemical compounds composing organic bodies, that 

 this specific polarity dwells. It cannot be that atoms 

 of albumen, or fibrine, or gelatine, or the hypothetical 

 protein substance, possess this power of aggregating into 

 specific shapes, for in such cases there would be nothing 

 to account for the unlikenesses of different organisms. 

 Millions of species of plants and animals, more or less 

 contrasted in their structures, are all mainly built up 

 of these atoms. But if the polarities of these atoms 

 determined the forms of the organisms thej^ composed, 

 the occurrence of such endlessly varied forms would be 

 inexplicable. Hence, what we may call the chemical 

 units are clearly not the possessors of this property. 



"On the other hand, this property cannot reside in 

 what may roughly be distinguished as the morph.ological 

 itnits. The germ of every organism is a microscopic 

 cell. It is by multiplication of cells that all the early 

 developmental changes are affected. The various 

 tissues which successively arise in the unfolding 

 organism, are primarily cellular, and in many of them 

 the formation of cells continues to be, throughout life, 

 the process by which repair is carried on. But" though 

 cells are so generally the ultimate visible components 

 of organisms, that they may, with some show of reason, 

 be called the morphological units ; yet, as they are not 

 universal, Ave cannot say that this tendency to aggregate 

 into specific forms, dwells in them. Finding that in 

 many cases a fibrous tissue arises out of a structureless 

 blastema without cell formation, and finding that there 

 are creatures, such as the Rhizopods, which are not 

 cellular, but nevertheless exhibit vital activities, and 

 perpetuate in their progeny certain specific distinctions, 

 we are forbidden to ascribe to cells this peculiar power 

 of arrangement. Nor, indeed, were cells universal, 

 would such an hypothesis be acceptable, since the 

 formation of a cell is, to some extent, a manifestation 

 of this peculiar power. 



" If, then, this organic polarity can be possessed neither 

 by the chemical units nor by the morphological units, 

 we must conceive jt as possessed by certain inter- 



