644 THE WONDER OF LIFE 



when a big drop of silver nitrate is placed on a film of 

 gelatine in which there is a trace of potassium bichromate. 

 There we see, as the diffusion and precipitation proceed, 

 the rings of growth on a salmon's scale and the zones of the 

 otolith in his ear. There we see, as the diffusion and pre- 

 cipitation continue, the zones of growth in the stem of an 

 oak, in the recesses of a pearl, in the vertebra of a fish, on 

 the scale of a tortoise, and on the barred feather of the 

 hawk. No doubt a wide gulf is fixed, but the phenomena 

 are extraordinarily similar as well as very different, and 

 our point is simply that too much must not be made of the 

 quality of ' inertness ' in non-living material. 



May it not be that an aspect of reality continuous with 

 the clear consciousness in the higher reaches of life has 

 always been present, though it is negligible for the practical 

 purposes of science until the confines of the inorganic are 

 passed ? May it not be allowing us glimpses of its presence 

 in the architecture of the crystal, in the hidden ' life ' of 

 jewels, and in radio-activity ? May it not be expressing 

 itself in the tendency that matter has to complexify pass- 

 ing from atom to molecule, from simple molecule to com- 

 plex molecule, and from molecule to colloid masses ? May 

 it not lie behind the inorganic evolution which we are 

 beginning to discover ? May it not have been resident 

 in the nebula of our solar system, and be contemporaneous 

 with the primeval Order of Nature. 



IN CONCLUSION 



A consideration of the everyday functions of organisms, 

 of their behaviour, of their development, and of their 

 evolution, leads us away from Kant's view that there is 

 one science of nature, and leads us to follow Driesch and 



