CHAPTER III. 



FUNCTION. 



§ 55. Does Strncture originate Function, or does Func- 

 tion originate Structure? is a question about which there has 

 been disagreement. Using the word Function in its widest 

 signification, as the totality of all vital actions, the question 

 amounts to this — does Life produce Organization, or does 

 Organization produce Life ? 



To answer this question is not easy, since we habitually 

 find the two so associated that neither seems possible without 

 the other; and they appear uniformly to increase and de- 

 crease together. If it be said that the arrangement of or- 

 ganic substances in particular forms, cannot be the ultimate 

 cause of vital changes, which must depend on the properties 

 of such substances; it may be replied that, in the absence of 

 structural arrangements, the forces evolved cannot be so 

 directed and combined as to secure that correspondence be- 

 tween inner and outer actions which constitutes Life. Again, 

 to the allegation that the vital activity of every germ whence 

 an organism arises, is obviously antecedent to the develop- 

 ment of its structures, there is the answer that such germ 

 is not absolutely structureless. 



But in truth this question is not determinable by any 

 evidence now accessible to us. The very simplest forms of 

 life known (even the non-nucleated, if there are any) consist 

 of granulated protoplasm ; and granulation implies structure. 



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