PART II 



CHAPTER I 

 " NORMALS " 



DR. J. S. HALDANE and other eminent physiologists have insisted 

 that recent study of " normals," i.e., the persistent and constant 

 behaviour shown by the parts of the body in all important life- 

 functions, makes for an entirely new interpretation of Physiology. 

 Dr. Haldane tells us that physiological study and biological 

 study generally seem to make it clear that throughout all the 

 detail of physiological reaction and anatomical structure we can 

 discern the maintenance of an articulated or organised normal. 

 There is, for example, as he points out, an almost incredible 

 constancy in the composition of the blood, and there are similar 

 constants or normals with regard to our body temperature and 

 with regard to respiration and nutrition. Were it not for these 

 normals, Dr. Haldane tells us, the reactions of the cells would 

 become chaotic, and their structure would be completely altered 

 if not destroyed. Living organisms, according to Dr. Haldane, 

 seek to meet all disturbances imposed upon them in such a way 

 as to maintain the " normal " in essential points. Wherever 

 we look we find " normals " to which return is made with sur- 

 prising persistence and accuracy. By " normal " is meant 

 ' ' not what is average, but what is normal in the biological sense 

 (italics mine). Dr. Haldane speaks of the condition in which 

 the organism is maintaining in integrity all the inter-connected 

 " normals " which manifest themselves in both bodily structure 

 and activity. The " normals " indeed, he avers, are the 

 expression of what the organism is. 



Now, in my opinion, the study of " normals," especially 

 when duly expanded to comprise " causes," is of almost incon- 

 ceivable importance, as I hope to have to some extent shown 

 by my repeated demonstration of the " normal " of feeding 

 and of its importance in determining normal, i.e., physiological 

 ^growth and normal or physiological evolution, as distinguished 



