November 20, 1902] 



NA TURE 



5i 



and it will give prominence to what is, after all, the 

 essential feature in life, the feature studied in Driesch's 

 " Regulatorik " — a supplement to " Organisatorik " ! As 

 this scientific biology progresses, a recognition of the 

 need for a "dynamic teleology" will become plain, and 

 everything will become clearer before the open secret of 

 " the autonomy of vital processes." The plan of the book 

 is clear. Part A. is devoted to a descriptive and critical 

 exposition of facts, based especially on the work of 

 Pfefferand Goebel, Dieudonne and Herbst, and dealing 

 with phenomena like those of immunity, functional and 

 structural adaptations, regeneration, and so on. Part B. 

 includes a definition of the concept of " regulation," a 

 classification of "regulations," an analysis of the process 

 of regulation and an exposition of the two lines of argu- 

 ment which lead to a recognition of the autonomy of 

 vital processes. Part iii. is more technically philosophical, 

 dealing with " Denknothwendigkeit," " Causalitat," &c. 

 — " den reinen Erkenntnisskritikern empfohlen." 



Let us try in more detail to illustrate the drift of this 

 difficult book. Pfeffer has shown that certain fungi, sup- 

 plied simultaneously with several organic substances, 

 almost always assimilate first that which has the greatest 

 nutritive value, and go on to the second best only after 

 they have exhausted the optimum. In scarcity of food 

 and of oxygen, many living creatures illustrate an adaptive 

 regulation of their metabolism. There is strong evidence 

 in support of the conclusion that various living creatures 

 can by the production of a specific antitoxin render them- 

 selves relatively immune to a specific poison. We have 

 given three examples which may hint at what Driesch 

 means by regulations in metabolism (" Stojfwechsel- 

 regulationen "). 



Similarly, we all know that the CO.,-content of the 

 blood has a regulative effect on the blood-pressure and 

 on the respiratory movements, that cold weather has a 

 regulative influence on the peripheral circulation which 

 lessens the loss of heat, that plants show a regulative 

 transpiratory response to altered conditions of humidity, 

 that a fungus-cell will save itself from plasmolysis in a 

 too-concentrated solution by the increased production of 

 osmotically-active substances (acids), that our intestinal 

 and renal cells behave not less effectively, and that, 

 altogether apart from brain or eyes, as in the case of a 

 decapitated Planarian, there are adaptive responses to 

 light and other stimuli. These examples may serve to 

 suggest what Driesch means by functional regulations 

 (" Euergetische regulatiotten "). 



It is well known that the leaves of the same kind of 

 plant may have different mesophyll arrangement in dif- 

 ferent conditions, and that the new circumstances may 

 be said to evoke their own corrective ; that the structural 

 adjustments of the same amphibious plant to thoroughly 

 aquatic or to mainly terrestrial life are effective in both 

 instances ; and that many kinds of creatures, both 

 animal and vegetable, adapt themselves to conditions of 

 desiccation. These are a few simple examples of what 

 Driesch means by regulative structural adaptations 

 (" Morphologische Anpassungen an Ai/sseres "). 



If the top of a conifer be destroyed, a dorso-ventrally 



disposed side branch may rise upright ; if a crab's leg or 



a lizard's tail is lost, another may be made ; a fragment 



of an animal, even of an embryo, may regrowthe whole ; 



' NO. 1725, VOL. 67] 



a Hydra's tentacles may, in case of need, be, as it were, re- 

 smelted into body-substance ; the lost lens of a newt may 

 be replaced by adventitious growth from the iris. In 

 short, the author discusses the whole subject of regenera- 

 tion (recrescence and reparation), and finds therein 

 abundant evidence of " regulation " (" Restitittionen oder 

 Wiederherstellungsregulationen "). 



The four German phrases noted above in italics are 

 the titles of the first four chapters of the book, but we 

 have not been able to give more than a hint of the 

 breadth of the author's survey of facts. We would in 

 particular direct attention to the valuable essay on re- 

 generation included in chapter iv. 



Part A. is relatively plain sailing, for there we are deal- 

 ing with more or less familiar facts, but in Part B. — the 

 theoretischer Theil — we soon get into rough water. 

 There are many sentences which we cannot even pretend 

 to understand. We are first supplied with a definition of 

 the concept "regulation." 



" A regulation is a process, or a change in a process, 

 occurring in a living organism whereby some disturbance 

 of its previous ' normal ' condition is wholly or partially, 

 directly or indirectly, compensated, and the 'normal' 

 condition, or at least an approximation to it, restored." 



By an abstraction, which, if we understand it aright, 

 seems only verbal, Driesch distinguishes two chief kinds 

 of regulations — organisational and adaptive ; the former 

 restore disturbed organisation, the latter restore disturbed 

 adaptiveness. The author restores our confidence, how- 

 ever, by admitting that organisation and adaptation in- 

 terpenetrate one another ("durchdringen sich "). Then 

 follows an elaborate classified catalogue of " regula- 

 tions." 



We have read with interest and instruction the chapter 

 on the course of a regulative process. 



"The primary stimulus in regulations consists in a re- 

 moval of parts or in a disturbance of function. It may 

 coincide locally with the effect, or it may affect the 

 organism quite generally, in which case the localisation 

 of the effect in relation to that of the stimulus is ' speci- 

 ficirt,' or it may have a localisation other than that of the 

 effect. In the last case, mediations (' Vermittelungen ') 

 of the primary stimulus become necessary, which some- 

 times perhaps express themselves materially (' stofflich '), 

 but usually operate in a quite unknown manner. They 

 thus produce the secondary or true stimulus, while in the 

 other cases of relation between localisation of stimulus 

 and localisation of regulation the primary stimulus was 

 also the true one. Regulations, whether functional or 

 formative, presuppose secondary prospective potencies, 

 in contrast to the primary potencies, which form the 

 basis of the normal series of occurrences (' Geschehen '). 

 In the diversity of the specific distribution and specific 

 content of these potencies, we find, at the same time, the 

 limitations of the regulative process ('Geschehen') ; since 

 every regulative process is at the same time a reaction- 

 process, its 'specificity' has at the same time the general 

 physiological and morphological characteristics of a 

 reaction-process ; but it has besides special teleological 

 characteristics always of a particular kind. The time at 

 which a regulation begins to operate we call the ' Re- 

 gulationsmoment.' " 



We have tried to translate this " Riickblick" on the 

 analysis of regulation-processes, and we must apologise 

 for the awkwardness of our translation. We hope, how- 

 ever, that it will suggest the luminosity of Hans Driesch's 



