Sketch of an Organismal 'riwor/i of Consrioustwss 343 



from the nomenclature of liviiio- })cin^rs. Iwiter, with tlie per- 

 meation of all knowledge by the eoncej)tioM of the natural 

 or derivative origin of everything (a genuinely organic con- 

 ception, notice), has come even for elementary cliemical sub- 

 stances, the induction into i)hysics and chemist rv of such 

 ideas as genetic relations, parenthood, and li-ngth of lifr. 

 So my suggestion tliat the air we breathe nuist be rcco<rni/c(l 

 to possess latent attributes which by reacting with the or- 

 ganism produce consciousness, falls into a genetic scries in 

 the history of the interpretation of nature. 



The very important question, as already indicated, of ex- 

 actly how atmospheric or molecular oxygen oj)erates in the 

 living being generally and the conscious being ])articularly, 

 is largely for the future to answer. One should never fail, 

 however, to couple this question with the same question as to 

 the behavior of oxygen, and for that matter of any other 

 chemical substance, in any reaction whatever. Exactly how, 

 for example, does oxygen operate with hydrogen to produce 

 the attribute of ref rangibility of water ; or with phosphorus 

 to produce the peculiar glow which that substance may ex- 

 hibit under some conditions.'^ 



Concerning the positive knowledge and the views as to 

 details of the action of oxygen in connection with the or- 

 ganism, only a little can be said here though that little may 

 be very important. Looked at from the standpoint of the 

 old, the orthodoxly atomistic chemistry, probably the most 

 anomalous thing about my hypothesis is that the organism 

 conceived as equivalent, chemically s])eaking, to an elenun- 

 tary substance, is the unciuestioned fact that the organism is 

 not only composed of several chemical substancis, but that 

 one of these is oxygen itself. Stated iialdly, the anomaly is 

 that two chemical substances are supposed to react upon each 

 other, one of which (the organism) is known not only not 

 to be simple, but to contain the otlu r substance. Hut even 

 the old chemistry with its "compound radicals," ot* which 



