THE TETRAKINETIC THEORY 281 



namely, first, the energy complex of the organism, which is perishable 

 with the term of life of the individual, and second, the germ or heredity 

 substance, which is perpetual. 



3. The idea that the germ is an energy complex is an as yet un- 

 proved hypothesis; it has not been demonstrated. The Heredity-Germ 

 in some respects bears a likeness to latent or potential interacting 

 energy, while in other respects it is entirely unique. The supposed 

 germ energy is not only cumulative but is in a sense imperishable, self- 

 perpetuating, and continuous during the whole period of the evolution 

 of life upon the earth, a conception which we owe chiefly to the law of 

 the continuity of the germ-plasm formulated by Weismann. Some 

 of the observed phenomena of the germ in Heredity are chiefly 

 analogous to those of interaction in the Organism, namely, directive 

 of a series of actions and reactions, but in general we know no complete 

 physical or inorganic analogy to the phenomena of heredity; they are 

 unique in nature. 



4. With the multiplication and diversification of individual or- 

 ganisms there enters a new factor in the environment, namely, the 

 energy complex of the Life Environment. 



Thus there are combined certainly three and, possibly, four com- 

 plexes of energy, of which each has its own actions, reactions, and 

 interactions. The evolution of life proceeds by sustaining these 

 actions, reactions, and interactions and constantly building up new 

 ones : at the same time the potentiality of reproducing these actions, re- 

 actions, and interactions in the course of the development of each new 

 organism is gradually being accumulated and perpetuated in the germ. 



From the very beginning every individual organism is competing 

 with other organisms of its own kind and of other kinds, and the law 

 of the survival of the" fittest is operating between the forms and func- 

 tions of organisms as a whole and between their separate actions, 

 reactions, and interactions. This, as Weismann pointed out, while 

 apparently a selection of the individual organism itself, is actually a 

 selection of the heredity-germ complex, of its potentialities, powers, 

 and predispositions. Thus Selectioii is not a form of energy, nor a 

 part of the energy complex; it is an arbiter between different com- 

 plexes and forms of energy; it antedates the origin of life just as 

 adaptation or fitness antedates the origin of life, as remarked by 

 Henderson. 



Thus we arrive at a conception of the relations of organisms to 

 each other and to their environment as of an enormous and always 



