THE WONDERS OF LIFE 



dealing with the evolution of organisms, we reject 

 vitalism and dualism, and maintain our conviction that 

 it can always be traced to physical forces (and especially 

 chemical energy). As we regard plasm as the basis of 

 it (chapter vi.), we may say that organic evolution 

 depends on the mechanics and chemistry of the plasm. 

 We postulate no supernatural vital force for the ex- 

 planation of physiological functions, and we are just as 

 far from admitting it as regulator or agency of the 

 biogenetic process. 



If we understand by biogeny the sum total of the 

 organic evolutionary processes on our planet, by geogeny 

 the processes at work in the formation of the earth itself, 

 and by cosmogony those that produced the whole world, 

 biogeny is clearly only a small part of geogeny, and this 

 in turn only a small section of the vast science of cosmog- 

 ony. This important relation is evident enough, yet 

 often overlooked ; it holds both of time and space. Even 

 if we suppose that the biogenetic process occupied more 

 than a hundred million years, this period is probably 

 much shorter than that which our planet has needed for 

 its development as a cosmic body — from the first detach- 

 ment of the nebular ring from the shrinking body of the 

 sun to its condensation into a rotating sphere of gas, and 

 from this to the formation of the incandescent globe, the 

 stiffening of the crust at its surface, and finally the down- 

 pour of fluid water. It was not until this last stage that 

 carbon could begin its organogenetic activity and proceed 

 to the formation of plasm. But even this long geogenetic 

 process is, as regards space and time, only a very small 

 part of the illimitable history of the world. If we further 

 assume that organic life develops on other cosmic bodies 

 {Riddle, chapter xx.) in the same way as on our earth 

 under like conditions, the whole sum of all these bio- 

 genetic processes is only a small part of the all-embracing 

 cosmogenetic process. The vitalistic belief that its 



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