202 Education through Nature 



ment, were always the same, only one resultant could 

 be possible, and all development would necessarily 

 result invariably in identical beings. As a matter of 

 fact, however, both factors vary. The hereditary 

 element is made to vary by the blending of different 

 cells in fecundation; and, as we have seen, the envi- 

 ronment is necessarily changed every time the cell 

 divides. Hence heterogeneity (variation) must result 

 not only in the constituent cell of an organism, but 

 in the organisms themselves. 



The Life of a Complex Organism. 



Complex as the original germ may be, the fully 

 formed organism is infinitely more so. It is in fact a 

 world, S3 to speak, of heterogeneous vital units, the 

 cells, possessing specific qualities of their own by 

 which each unit not only maintains its own individu- 

 ality, but contributes to the more complex life of the 

 whole. The whole organism exerts a coercive power 

 over these lesser units, which, in turn, by their spe- 

 cific reactions, may influence the life of the whole. The 

 whole, therefore, is as essential in the developed organ- 

 ism as are the parts, and the part as essential as the 

 whole. Neither can exist without the other. This 

 interdependence is due to the specialization and dif- 

 ferentiation which must always exist in a complex 

 organism, and indeed increases as the complexity 

 increases. 



The life of such a complex organism, though not 

 perhaps fundamentally different from the original 

 germ-cells, is a resultant of the interaction of many 

 lesser lives, the lives of the constituent cells. 



Just as the life of the germ pervades the entire 

 organism, so does this higher, more complex life 

 pervade the entire organism. Inasmuch as the life 

 of the developed organism depends on the life of the 



