Cope 259 



that point. All modifications of form can thus be traced 

 to activity of this energy at particular points/' 



"The building energy being thus understood to be a 

 mode of molecular motion, we are not at liberty to suppose 

 that its existence is dependent on the dimensions of the 

 organic body which exhibits it. It is as characteristic 

 of the organic unit or plastidule as the mode of motion 

 which builds the crystal is of the simplest molecular 

 aggregate from which the crystal arises. Bathmism has, 

 however, no other resemblance to crystalloid cohesion. 

 The latter is a simple energy which acts within geo- 

 metrically related spaces, without regard to anything 

 else than the present compulsion of superior weight- 

 energy. In bathmism we see the resultant of innumerable 

 antecedent influences, which builds an organism con- 

 structed for adaptation to the varied and irregularly 

 occuring contingencies \vhich characterize the life of liv- 

 ing beings. As this resultant is distinctive for every 

 species, bathmism must be regarded as a generic term, 

 and the characteristic growth energy of each species as 

 distinct species of energy, which present also diversities 

 expressive of the peculiarities of individuals." 195 



It would be superfluous to bring forward the extraor- 

 dinary indefiniteness and, we can almost say, pure 

 verbalism without any foundation in fact of this theory 

 of Cope's which approximates closely Haeckel's theory 

 of perigenesis with its undulatory plastidular movement. 

 We shall confine ourselves to remarking merely that each 

 given dynamic state of the protoplasm peculiar to a 

 given species, when it thus represents in itself the result- 

 ant of all dynamic states, which were peculiar to the 



19E Cope : Ibid. P. 447449. 



