THE DETERMINATION OF DOMINANCE. .287 



dififerent in organisms, unless we assume that there is in living 

 substance something fundamentally different from that of non- 

 living matter, and any such admission at once commits the maker 

 thereof to vitalism. 



I am not convinced that the analogy between a crystal and 

 an organic individual is justified. This idea, of which Haeckel 

 is the foremost exponent — while it has points in its favor — leaves 

 much unexplained, and in living substance there are many proc- 

 esses and attributes which can be taken away, i. e., are absent 

 as far as perception is concerned, leaving a similar mass with 

 other attributes. 



There is much justification for considering organic species 

 in the same light as we view non-living species. Thus a 

 granite rock is as distinctive and specific as any animal or plant 

 species. It has properties, attributes of the whole and also specific 

 characters of the component parts. The basal components — 

 orthoclase-feldspar, mica, quartz — exist in crystalline form in a 

 granular crystalline complex; while the whole has specific attri- 

 butes and qualities, the products of the interactions of the com- 

 ponent parts and of the forces incident upon the elementary com- 

 ponent substances at the time of combination. Depending upon 

 variations of the mica — whether muscovit or biotite — and upon 

 the amount and size of the mica masses, the appearance and 

 attributes of the granites change; and much also depends upon 

 whether the feldspar is orthoclase-feldspar or triclinic-feldspar, etc. 



The possible number of specific kinds of granite is very con- 

 siderable and depends solely upon the nature of the component 

 substances and the conditions under which the combinations are 

 effected, while the specific end products are as distinctive as any 

 plant or animal form. 



Likewise in feldspar, (a rock-forming unit character?) the crys- 

 talline form depends upon what it is that is combined with the 

 silicates of aluminum, whether salts of calcium, sodium, potas- 

 sium or barium, to give the range of color, form, hardness, cleav- 

 age, specific gravity, etc., found in the feldspar. Feldspar is 

 crystalline, has polarity, and might well be a parallel to an 

 organic form, but the constituent substances can be changed, re- 

 placed, giving distinct, specific end results. In orthoclase, which 



