Implications of the Theories of Nerve Action 199 



that probably no biologist has dealt with the conception 

 more comprehensively and illuminatingly than Loeb. Third, 

 we find that his espousal and able treatment of the theories 

 has led him into positions so thoroughly organismal in both 

 essence and expression as to be quite irreconcilable with his 

 own more general elementalistic philosophy. 



It remains to point out more specifically than we have 

 wherein the organismal implications of his teachings as ex- 

 emplified by his writings constitute a refutation of the 

 elementalistic implications of his teachings as exemplified 

 by his strivings after an "ultimate explanation" of organic 

 phenomena in the terms of physics and chemistry. 



The essence of the irreconcilability of the two positions 

 may be put into a general form thus : in innumerable state- 

 ments and definitions found in his discussions of these the- 

 ories, Loeb is compelled to introduce the organism either as 

 a whole or in considerable portions, as a causal explanation 

 of particular phenomena with which he deals ; and the com- 

 pulsion to such introduction makes it impossible for him or 

 any one else to dispense with the causes thus introduced by 

 resolving them into ultimate elements of any sort, whether 

 organic or inorganic. 



Illustration and justification of this general statement 

 must be given. The following typical sentence may intro- 

 duce the discussion: "The irritable structures at the sur- 

 face of the body, and the arrangement of the muscles, de- 

 termine the character of the reflex act." 15 



Notice what it is that "determines" the character of the 

 act. "Structures" and "muscles" do it, these being "ar- 

 ranged" so-and-so, the irritable structures definitely on the 

 surface of the body and the muscles within the body. The 

 point needing special attention is that not chemical com- 

 pounds or even living substances but structures organs 

 and these arranged; that is, entities which neither exist nor 

 can exist except through the agency of an organism, enter 



