NEW CONCEPTIONS IN SCIENCE 



of protoplasm is almost potter's clay, to be moulded 

 to what shape he pleases. 



Here the sole condition of reversibility in the evo- 

 lution or devolution of this organism appears to 

 be that of contact. What may be the vital, or, in 

 more precise phrase, the molecular processes which 

 determine this curious spectacle lie as yet far be- 

 yond the ken of the biologist. But that slowly 

 yet surely he will penetrate the mystery is beyond 

 doubt. Once gained the magic word, the wizard 

 wand, which shall call forth or banish form, struct- 

 ure, parts, or organs in the lower types of life- 

 shall he not rise progressively in the scale, until 

 perchance all life phenomena shall be within his 

 control until it will be within his power to "take 

 life in his hands and play with it"? 



That day may be distant, but meanwhile there is 

 one phase of the problem that seems nearer to our 

 day and time. That is, the realization of Ponce de 

 Leon's quest of prolonged youth. Arrest of growth, 

 the stunted plant, the deformed or undeveloped 

 child, the idiot, the cripple, the prematurely senile 

 are not all these painfully familiar to our daily 

 view? Yet why should the mechanism of nature, 

 so seeming sure, turning out a thousand perfect 

 specimens, slip so sadly with the thousand -and- 

 first? We know in part, and can in part control. 

 An impoverished soil, consumptive, syphilitic, or 



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