84 I'HE COMING OF MAN 



the nature of its control of its parts? What determines 

 " diminution of surface-tension " or the contractihty of the 

 ectoplasm in the protrusion of a pseudopodium; and what re- 

 verses the process in its withdrawal? What is ^' responsible " 

 for the cooperation of fibers, granules and other particles in 

 its momentary hfe? Control is a fact; but we cannot explain 

 it. 



Why do the separated cells of a pulverized and sifted calc- 

 sponge recombine and rearrange themselves in the old shape 

 and form,? There is energy of guidance and control hover- 

 ing over and immanent in the multitude of cells. More we 

 dare not say.^ 



In the development and growth of the bones of mammals, 

 in our thigh-bone for instance, what controls and directs the 

 work of the myriad of osteoblasts and osteoclasts continually 

 adding material to the ends of the terminal knobs or condyles, 

 and gnawing it away along their lower surface, changing 

 what had been a knob into a part of the shaft? The rival 

 hosts cooperate in fashioning and lengthening the bone as the 

 artist shapes a model, adding clay here, scraping it off there. 

 Such miracles are being performed in and around us every 

 moment. We are too busy to notice them, much more to 

 ever think of them. 



What combines the working of all the organs of the body, 

 every one doing its own share and amount of the work? Seek 

 its seat in the nervous system, if you will. But as Bergson 

 says: '' A nervous system with neurones placed end to end 

 in such a wise that, at the extremity of each, manifold ways 

 open in which manifold questions present themselves is a 

 veritable reservoir of indetermination." Where is the oper- 

 ator for the great telephonic switch-board? '^ The role of 

 life is to insert some indetermination into matter." ^ We are 

 searching for a seat of control. 



These strange substances, hormones, produced at one point, 

 set free under some stimulus, traversing the body like tor- 



-Qo. go. 

 3 1. 126. 



