The Living Machine 281 



lation of cell sap, and movements of leaves and roots in 

 response to stimuli ; while among animals, the attached forms 

 such as sponges, sea anemones, barnacles, etc., either lack 

 locomotive power or possess it in very slight degree. 



All living things then are motile to greater or less degree. 

 But is this quality lacking in the non-living world? Place a 

 diluted drop of ink under the microscope and it becomes a 

 microcosm of violent activity. Wind and water are ever 

 active. The earth is flying through space at the rate of IS 1 ^ 

 miles a second, and the universe is a realm of eternal motion. 

 Light and sound are expressions of movement, and the elec- 

 tronic theory of matter postulates that matter itself is a 

 cosmos of ceaseless energy. But the vitalist tells us that 

 living matter possesses *' spontaneity, " which is lacking in 

 the non-living world. The living thing moves of its own 

 "volition," the non-living only under the influence of forces 

 external to itself. But what evidence have we of "volition" 

 on the part of an Amoeba or bacterium, while the energy 

 of the living machine is as truly the result of oxidation of 

 fuel as is that of the steam turbine or the automobile. Any 

 distinction then on the basis of motion alone between the 

 world of the living and the non-living is a fallacy. 



Adaptation is one of the most characteristic features of 

 life. The bird and bat are adapted for flight, the fish for 

 swimming, the monkey for climbing : one need not enumerate, 

 for one cannot name a single living thing which is not 

 adapted to the conditions of its existence; otherwise it would 

 not exist. Adaptation is the very keynote of life, and the 

 tablets of the past are crowded with the records of creatures, 

 which, serving well their day and generation, failed to adapt 

 themselves to changing conditions, and so were trampled 

 under foot by the onrush of the fit in the bitter struggle 

 for existence. 



But are living things alone adapted to their environment? 

 Does not the river adapt itself to its channel, the lake to its 

 basin, and the gas to the form and size of its container? 

 Ice exists in winter because it is adapted to the cold and dis- 

 appears in summer because it is not adapted to the heat. 

 Adaptation indeed is merely an expression of action and re- 

 action, of cause and effect. But, argues the vitalist, these 

 are merely examples of the direct physical influence of one 

 thing upon another, while life adapts itself only in indirect 

 and as yet unknown ways. The fact of adaptation in the 

 inorganic world remains however, and when the riddles of 

 life have been solved it is not unlikely that the process of 

 adaptation of living things can be resolved into simple 

 physico-mechanical terms, just as surely as can the adjust- 



