INDIVIDUATION AND REPRODUCTION 201 



there are many facts which indicate that their polarity is not 

 self-determined, but is either acquired during the course of their 

 existence as a reaction to external conditions, or is merely the 

 polarity of the parent cell persisting in the products of division. 

 Moreover, there are various activities in the cell which are mani- 

 festly not axiate but radiate, and, finally, no one has been able to 

 discover the slightest indication of polarity in the fundamental 

 physical structure or optical properties of protoplasm. 



But the fact remains that most organisms possess one or more 

 axes, the axes of polarity and symmetry, so called, and that these 

 axes are manifestly of fundamental importance in individuation. 

 The degree of physiological coherence and unity in the individual 

 is associated with the definiteness and fixity of its axes, and develop- 

 ment always proceeds in a definite and orderly way with reference 

 to whatever axes may exist. Evidently the axes of the organism 

 are not simply geometrical fictions, but rather the expression of 

 some fundamental factor in the axiate type of individuation, a 

 factor which influences the rate and character of the metabolic 

 reactions and so plays an essential part in both morphogenesis and 

 functional activity. 



In the more complex organisms a polarity and symmetry of the 

 whole organism often exist at the same time with a multitude of 

 polarities and symmetries of various parts, organs, and cells 

 which do not coincide with the general axes, but make all possible 

 angles with them and may be widely variable. This fact makes it 

 evident at once that the axiation of the organism as a whole is not 

 simply the general expression of the axiation of its parts. Many 

 different polarities and symmetries coexist and persist independ- 

 ently of each other, and yet the whole course of development is 

 an orderly process with a definite result. 



These characteristics of organic individuals are not satisfactorily 

 accounted for by the current theories of the organism. Whether 

 we regard the organism from the viewpoint of the corpuscular 

 theories as an aggregation of distinct, self-perpetuating entities, 

 or as a chemical or physico-chemical system, we cannot escaj^e the 

 necessity of accounting in some way for its definite and orderly 

 behavior and for the very evident relation in axiate forms between 



