The Physiological Unit. 177 



It is no addition to real knowledge to be told that 

 the innate tendencies, inherent proclivities, and powers 

 of directing the formation of organic structure that 

 lie in the physiological units have been derived from 

 the environment in the past, and are due to a suc- 

 cession of minute modifications wrought through an 

 innumerable series of changes. The action of the en- 

 vironment had over against it from the beginning the 

 reaction of the molecular system. On Mr. Spencer's 

 theory there could not have been any organic struc- 

 ture without an antecedent molecular constitution. 

 Go as far back as we will, we must begin, not with 

 the "indefinite," but with a defined order, not with 

 the " incoherent," but with a combined and compacted 

 system, not with " homogeneity," but with a state of 

 differentiation than which nothing higher in kind can 

 be conceived. 



Evolution again breaks down when it faces an ulti- 

 mate question. 



The physiological unit is a necessary link in Mr. 

 Spencer's hypothesis; if we doubt its existence we 

 doubt his doctrine. An examination of what is in- 

 volved in the assumption of its existence leads us to 

 the conviction that it is a " special creation," not of the 

 Supreme Wisdom, but of the Evolution Philosophy. 



