Implications of the Theories of Nerve iction 205 



liave no evidence that the chemical elements oiJcratliiL'' them- 

 selves can actualize their own latent doscarecious powers. 



The reader will hardly fail to connect what we are say- 

 ing with the familiar phenomena of the assimilation hv 

 organisms of nutrient suhstances. All our aririiinciit really 

 does to the usual conce])tion of this pheiiomiMoii is to focus 

 attention upon the fundamental im|)ortance of the iml'n'idu/tl 

 organism as a factor, as a cause, of the chemical transfor- 

 mations wrought in the nutrient substances. The insnf 

 ficiency of statement of the assimilative, oi- anabolic, or 

 synthetic aspect of the metabolic cycle in the organism, 

 lies in its failure to bring out clearly enouirh the Indubitable 

 fact that the final results are innumerable activities and sub- 

 stances which pertain solely to the living, normal indiridual 

 — which are strictly personal and private, as one may say. 



The current mode of expression according to which the 

 assimilative syntheses take place in the organism is (juite 

 misleading in that it permits or even encourages a concep- 

 tion that the syntheses have a measure of detachment from, 

 and independence of, the life of the organism as a working 

 unit, which as a matter of fact they do not have. Again, the 

 usual statement that the syntheses result in orga?iic sub- 

 stances of more complex, higher make-up is inadetjuate in 

 that it diverts attention from the fact that these new sub- 

 stances belong to, are fundamentally ])ai"t and parcel of trie 

 orxj-anism. Thev are not "any old organic substances** but 

 are exactly those substances necessary to maintain the nor- 

 mal life of the ])articular individual organism. IKiui- de- 

 spite the indubitable fact that the final results an- reached 

 by w^ay of innumerable |)urely pliyslcal and chemical ojH'ra- 

 ations, the organism itself, acting as an integer no niattir 

 how complex, is always to the fore as a controlling, donn- 

 nating factor. 



