DOMAIN OF EVOLUTIONARY HYPOTHESIS 97 



(2) The attempts to demonstrate as possible a genetic 

 connection between vivified and non-vivified matter, 

 or even to describe the course of the process, must 

 be regarded as perfectly vain. 



It is, in short, clear that no investigator considers 

 that through chemical structures of the most complicated 

 sort there can be explained the origin of a new substance 

 or of a directing ' something ' that stands above the 

 properties of matter. Although this ' something ' may 

 be clearly equally effective as the purely energetical 

 processes in the organism, and therefore formally 

 demands a scientific explanation, it is only too often 

 overlooked. The organism itself is alone regarded, and 

 it is believed that thereby the second element of vital 

 phenomena, the constant purposeful direction of the 

 purely chemico-physical processes, has been traced 

 to a sufficient cause. But that is not the case. 



(i) No organization, which is regarded only as a 

 peculiar chemico-physical quality or structure of 

 inorganic matter, explains life. 



The term ' organization/ as it is particularly used by 

 0. Hertwig and Cl. Bernard, is, in point of fact, a purely 

 biological one, and means ' the albumen bodies which 

 build up the protoplasm and all its innumerable 

 derivatives . . . and stand in nearer and ordered rela- 

 tions to each other and constitute the being of the 

 organism/ L ' Organization ' means, thus, ' ordered 



1 O. Hertwig : Attgemeine Biologie, p. 16. 



