858 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVI. No. 



fundamental problem of organic form. 

 When we understand the dynamics of form 

 in the individual organism, we shall be 

 well on our way toward understanding 

 how a certain form is repeated in a series 

 of genetically related individuals, and how 

 in phylogenetie history form may undergo 

 change. Of supreme importance to us is a 

 knowledge of the nature of our own organ- 

 ization. It is perfectly clear to us that we 

 ourselves are animals and that the attri- 

 butes and powers which we possess are 

 shared in greater or less measure by other 

 living beings. So far as form and organ- 

 ization are concerned, we recognize other 

 animals so nearly like ourselves that we 

 include ourselves with them in the same 

 sub-order of our scheme of classification. 

 Whatever shall be found to be true regard- 

 ing the nature of the organization of other 

 organisms must inevitably be true of our 

 own organization. The full realization of 

 this truth must have for us a significance 

 which it is now quite impossible to esti- 

 mate. The intellectual value of so great 

 an addition to our knowledge affords in 

 itself sufficient motive and justification for 

 the pursuit of that knowledge. Beyond 

 this intellectual value lie utilitarian possi- 

 bilities whose value exceeds conjecture. 



If we shall succeed in proving to our 

 complete satisfaction that organization is 

 the resultant effect of the action of auton- 

 omous elements — that it is merely an ap- 

 pearance presented to us by the results of 

 the curious accidents of molecules — our 

 attitude toward ourselves and toward the 

 universe in general must, so far as we 

 realize the full import of that view, be pro- 

 foundly affected thereby. If any one ob- 

 jects that this view, if true, is an unde- 

 sirable truth and that we might better not 

 know it, we can only reply with the faith 

 that the truth can not hurt us, and in any 



case science is bent upon having the truth 

 at all costs. Indeed, if this conception is 

 carried to its logical conclusions, they who 

 would prefer not to come into the knowl- 

 edge of such truth can hardly help them- 

 selves, for whether they know it or not lies 

 hidden amongst the secrets of molecular 

 accidents yet to happen. In the mechan- 

 ically deterministic universe to which this 

 view of organization naturally, almost in- 

 evitably leads us — one in which our con- 

 scious life becomes a meaningless, even if 

 interesting, replica of an inexorable phys- 

 ical concatenation — we may at least enjoy 

 our freedom from responsibility for our 

 own fate and the destiny of our race. 

 Indeed, it may be permitted to us to hope 

 that we are destined so to react within and 

 upon the physical order that its psychic 

 reflection shall come to contain less of pain 

 and more of pleasure. 



That other conception of organization 

 which attributes the harmonious action of 

 a system to forces which dominate the be- 

 havior of the members of the system ap- 

 pears, at the outset, more inviting to us 

 and richer in possibilities for us. If we 

 shall succeed in demonstrating to ourselves 

 the existence of such dominating organic 

 energies, we at once meet further questions 

 of far-reaching importance. There would, 

 however, still be enough left in the un- 

 known respecting organisms to provide ma- 

 terial for speculative inquiry which might 

 tend, as we have already intimated, in the 

 direction of any one of a variety of philo- 

 sophical attitudes. In fact, in the present 

 state of our knowledge this theory of dom- 

 inating energies may be made, if one so 

 pleases, as rigidly and narrowly mechan- 

 ical and as severely deterministic as any 

 other. Upon the other hand, it freely 

 opens the way to the more flexible and 

 more generous universe demanded by him 



