Chapter XIX 



THE ORGANISMAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE 

 INTERNAL SECRETORY SYSTEM 



TT remains now to consider the real purpose for which 

 * the presentation of facts and views on internal secre- 

 tions has been made, namely that of showing critically the 

 significance of this secretory system for the organismal 

 conception. 



General Inability of Element alism to Interpret the 

 Phenomena, 



There is perhaps no better way of approaching this part 

 of our task than by noticing the inability of elementalistic 

 biology to deal in a really intelligent and consistent manner 

 with the phenomena in this field. The breakdown of bio-ele- 

 mentalism when confronted with the phenomena of "chemical 

 messengers" nowhere finds more cogent illustration than in 

 the effort to identify internal secretions with the organ- 

 forming substances hypothesized by Sachs and others. 



Although in what follows the exposure of inconsistency 

 and fallacy will have to be drastic and may seem personal, 

 the truth is it is wholly impersonal in spirit and is directed 

 at a system of bad reasoning born of what might be called 

 a juvenile metaphysics of the living world. 



The objective achievements of Jacques Loeb and others 

 of the school he represents, in experimental biology, merit 

 the admiration of all lovers of observational truth. One 

 may be, too, more tolerant of their faults as reasoners 



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