CHAPTER XXX 



HEREDITY IN THE WIDE SENSE AND INDIVIDUAL 

 EVOLUTION 



WE have established a law a living body behaves as it does 

 at each separate instant under the influence of two factors 

 and these are easily distinguished in words. This law is 

 equally true for not-living bodies. The word " functioning " 

 applied to living beings is not oidinarily used in the history 

 of inorganic bodies. We say rather " reaction " when there 

 is question of a chemically-defined body transforming itself 

 under the influence of new conditions, or " action " simply 

 when no chemical transformation takes place. But, apart 

 from this difference of the words we use, the verification of 

 the law is general : 



A definite body A, in a sum of circumstances B, acts 

 in a manner which at once depends on the structure of A 

 and the nature of the factors of B, in a manner which con- 

 sequently admits of symbolic representation by the formula 

 (A x B). And the body which was called A before this 

 action (A x B) becomes afterwards A 1 a new body inte- 

 grally defined by what A was and what the reaction (A x B) 

 has been. 



One of the principal difficulties in generalizing this for- 

 mula of evolution for not-living bodies is that, contrary to 

 living bodies which continue living and preserve an indivi- 

 duality more or less easily defined, the not-living body is 

 often destroyed in acting and always destroys itself in react- 



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