Chapter AV.Y 



THE ORGAMSMAL SIGMFICANCi: OF IIIK 

 INTERNAL SECRETORY SYSIKM 



TT remains now to consider the real purpose for wliicli 

 -■- 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 Iiiahility of Element alls m 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 haA^c 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 he called 

 a juvenile metaph3^sics of the living world. 



The objective achievements of Jacques liOcl) and others 

 of the school he represents, in experimental biology, ment 

 the admiration of all lovers of obser^'ational truth. One 

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



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