LIVING THINGS AND MACHINES 193 



its work ; to set itself in motion and keep itself 

 going; to repair itself, within certain limits, 

 the defect that may arise; and above all, by 

 the fact that it constructs itself. In short, 

 an organism in contradistinction to the dead 

 machine is a living machine, one that does 

 not depend upon external impulses for its 

 movements, one that regulates its own course, 

 and continues going as long as the environment 

 will allow only through the hostility of this 

 or through irreparable misfortune is it brought 

 to a halt." 



The power to repair itself here is a thing 

 not met with or begun to be suggested in any 

 machine. Professor Hartog* very acutely 

 points this out in connection with the so-called 

 automatic machines. He says : "In its ori- 

 ginal use ' automatism ' designates the con- 

 tinuous sequence and combination of actions, 

 without external interference, performed by 

 complex machines designed and made for speci- 

 iic ends by intelligent beings : thus we speak 

 correctly of ' automatic ball bearings ' that 

 tighten themselves when they become loose; 

 but even these cannot take up fresh steel and 

 re-deposit it, either to replace the worn parts 

 or to strengthen a tube that is bending under 

 u stress." 



* Op. dt., p. 12. 



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