CHAPTER XI 



THE INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT 



I. The term environment in relation to an organism 

 may easily assume a mystic role if we assume that it 

 can modify the organisms so that they become adapted 

 to its peculiarities. Such ideas are difficult to compre- 

 hend from a physicochemical viewpoint, according to 

 which environment cannot affect the living organism 

 and non-living matter in essentially different ways. 

 Of course we know that proteins will as a rule coagulate 

 at temperatures far below the boiling point of water 

 and that no life is conceivable for any length of time 

 at temperatures above ioo° C, but heat coagulation of 

 proteins occurs as well in the test-tube as in the living 

 organism. If we substitute for the indefinite term 

 environment the individual physical and chemical 

 forces which constitute environment it is possible to 

 show that the influence of each of these forces upon the 

 organism finds its expression in simple physicochemical 

 laws and that there is no need to introduce any other 

 considerations. 



286 



