192 The Unity of the Organism 



Into the details of the physico-chemical conception of the 

 cell we do not enter again here. Miserably inadequate as 

 our presentation of the subject was in the previous chapter, 

 it must suffice for this discussion. 



By way of making the conception still more concrete 

 and vivid, and of emphasizing its importance from the or- 

 ganismal standpoint I quote Hopkins a little further: "On 

 ultimate analysis we can scarcely speak at all of living mat- 

 ter in the cell ; at any rate, we cannot, without gross mis- 

 use of terms, speak of the cell life as being associated with 

 any one particular type of molecule. Its life is the ex- 

 pression of a particular dynamic equilibrium which obtains 

 in a polyphasic system. Certain of the phases may be sep- 

 arated, mechanically or otherwise, as when we squeeze out 

 the cell juices, and find that chemical processes still go on 

 in them ; but 'life,' as we instinctively define it, is a property 

 of the cell as a whole, because it depends upon the organi- 

 sation of processes, upon the equilibrium displayed by the 

 totality of the coexisting phases." 



Let us now bring closely alongside these and the pre- 

 viously quoted statements about the nature of the cell as 

 seen by physical chemistry, statements about its nature as 

 seen by natural history, these latter statements having been 

 examined in the preceding chapter. Take this from E. B. 

 Wilson, for example: "The real unity is that of the entire 

 organism and as long as its cells remain in continuity they 

 are to be regarded not as morphological individuals, but 

 as specialized centers of action into which the living body 

 resolves itself and by means of which the physiological 

 division of labor is effected." 



And this from Whitman: "Comparative embryology re- 

 minds us at every turn that the organism dominates cell 

 formation, using for the same purpose one, several, or many 

 cells, massing its material and directing its movements, and 

 shaping its organs, as if the cells did not exist, or as if they 



