Introductory 27 



tegration will not escape the notice of any reader acquainted 

 with Spencer's ideas, particularly if he be at the same time 

 acquainted with the conception as adopted by O. Hertwig 

 and made the third law in his Theory of Biogenesis. Hert- 

 wig's elaboration of this law contains more probably that 

 accords with my central thesis than does any other writing 

 known to me. 



A brief on the procedure which will be followed in devel- 

 oping our thesis may now be given. 



Part I will be devoted to setting forth efforts that have 

 been made in recent and present-day biology to deal with 

 several great classes of the constituent parts or elements 

 of organisms in accordance with the elcmentalist tlieory. 

 If my basal proposition be true that the organism taken 

 alive and whole is as essential to an explanation of its ele- 

 ments as its elements are to an explanation of the organism, 

 then it would follow that all attempts to assign explanatory 

 values to the elements in their relation to the whole organ- 

 ism, while at the same time denying either expressly or 

 tacitly, similar values to the entire organism in its rela- 

 tions to the elements, must fail in large degree. 



And here comes in sight a vitally important aspect of my 

 general standpoint. Were the basal proposition just stated 

 handed out as a postulate, that is, as a proposition the ac- 

 ceptance of which is demanded without proof, or were it 

 even held to need no other proof than such as might be ad- 

 duced by syllogistic reasoning alone, in the manner, for ex- 

 ample, that both Aristotle and Lucretius mainly supported 

 their views, our task w^ould be comparatively simple. As an 

 illustration of how easily organismalism could be demon- 

 strated by this method, take the case of the relation of the 

 organism to its cells. We should first point out in general 

 terms what characters certain groups and classes of cells 

 might be expected to show in accordance with the hypothesis 

 that the larger structural and functional requirements of 



