en. XIII.] LIFE AS ADJUSTMENT. 71 



tion, with temporary loss of consciousness, then the con- 

 tinuance of life will depend upon the ability of the molecular 

 forces within the organism to bring about a redistribution of 

 matter and motion which shall balance the sudden redistri- 

 bution caused by the blow. Dynamical pathology regards 

 all diseases as disturbances of the internal equilibrium of 

 the organism, and recovery is the restoration of the equili- 

 brium. The avoidance of danger is the coordination of 

 certain actions in anticipation of more or less complex 

 relations about to arise without. If disease and danger be 

 successfully avoided, the death which ensues in old age is 

 due to the diminished plasticity of the organism which 

 renders it incapable of responding to external changes. As 

 we saw when treating of the primary aspects of Evolution 

 and Dissolution, the evolution of the body, even to the close 

 of life, is characterized by the integration of its constituent 

 matter, shown in the increasing proportion of solids to fluids 

 which makes the bones brittle, the muscles stiff, and the 

 nerves sluggish. Death from old age ensues just when the 

 consequent molecular immobility has reached the point at 

 which incident forces can no longer be balanced by internal 

 rearrangements. 



A paragraph will suffice for the exposition of this formula 

 of life in connection with the general law of evolution. 

 That the evolution of life upon the earth, beginning with 

 innumerable jelly-like patches of protoplasm, like the 

 monera discovered by Prof. Haeckel, and ending with more 

 than two million species of plants and animals such as 

 naturalists classify, has been a change from homogeneity to 

 heterogeneity, will be denied by no one. Nor is it needful 

 to repeat, save for form's sake, what was sufficiently illus- 

 trated in an earlier chapter, — that the higher forms are also 

 those in which the various orders of integration are most 

 completely exemplified. We need only to note that the 

 continuous adjustment of the organism to its environment, 



