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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 791 



several environnients. Even withiii the same 

 group these differ. 



One need but glance at the pictures of Holbein 

 to realize that the world in which he lived was 

 far richer than our own. The simplest things are 

 endowed by him with a reality that makes the 

 objects we see pale. 



The embryologist who has reared the eggs 

 of the oyster, the starfish and the sea-urchin, 

 within the same tumbler of sea-water, each 

 into its proper larva, can testify strongly in 

 favor of von Ueskiill's view. Nevertheless, it 

 does not follow that the organism which by 

 selection makes its environment, is the all- 

 important thing. Our author himself does 

 not contend that it is, but there are those who 

 do. It may not be amiss, therefore, to point 

 out that an animal adapted to an environment 

 of which factors A, B, C and D, constitute the 

 practical portion, may be transferred sud- 

 denly to surroundings in which A is repre- 

 sented hj A + 1; B hy B + 1; CbyC-fl; 

 and D hj D -\- 2. li A -\- 1 can serve for A, 

 the substitution is made, and similarly B -\-l 

 and C + 1, may take the places, respectively, 

 of B and 0. On the other hand, Z> + 2 may 

 be beyond the range of the organism unless 

 introduced to it, through the medium of 

 A -\-l, 5-1-1 and -\-l. If under these con- 

 ditions X> -|- 2 is selected, it follows that the 

 new environment has made the animal over, 

 and von Uexkiill's dictum, therefore, can be 

 enlarged to read. The organism makes the 

 environment, and, reciprocally, the environ- 

 ment makes the organism. 



The discussion of the environment leads by 

 a natural step to a subject sadly in need of 

 sunshine and fresh air. 



Dictionaries define " organization " as 

 " specifically the constitution of an animal or 

 vegetable body, or of one of its parts," and 

 many biologists use the word in this sense. 

 Were they consistent, no one would object, or 

 be the worse for the substitution of " organi- 

 zation " for " structure," but the word is as 

 versatile as the men who use it, and the syn- 

 onym transforms before our eyes into a brief 

 formula for that unity in action which comes 

 with transcendent complexity. Not only this, 

 but many, gifted with the power of making 



things more difficult than they really are, 

 would have us believe that the organization is 

 inside the thing organized! 



The discovery that organized things come 

 from eggs has led us to look in eggs for the 

 method of origin. The creatures that come 

 from eggs, however, are organized, not be- 

 cause they have a particular structure, or 

 form, but because the parts that compose them 

 are wonderfully related. One of the most 

 beautiful examples of organization in nature 

 is the bee-hive, a thing marvelously related to 

 its environment, and hardly less marvelous 

 abstractly, for its members act not only for 

 their own welfare, but especially for that of 

 the community and the race. It would be 

 futile to study serial sections for this organi- 

 zation, since only honey, wax and the frag- 

 ments of bees would greet the investigator's 

 eyes. No less futile is the search in eggs, for 

 organization is not a material thing, but the 

 sum of the interrelations between material 

 things. From this standpoint, reversals of 

 polarity or symmetry are in the same cate- 

 gory with the evolutions of a company of 

 soldiers, and, like the orderly facing about of 

 a well-drilled body of infantry, are possible 

 only under conditions dependent on structure, 

 yet themselves not structural. Physiological 

 interrelations do not exist in space. As well 

 try to dissect the digestion out of the duode- 

 num, as to search with anatomical methods 

 for organization, in this sense, in the egg ! 



If the point of view presented seems whole- 

 some, the impetus so gained, in favor of von 

 Uexkiill's opinions, is nevertheless insufficient 

 to carry us over the vitalistic bumper which 

 he has thrown across the biological roadway. 

 The argument is this : Living things are ma- 

 chines, but they are not all machinery. The 

 hand and foot, the arm and leg, the stomach 

 and heart, are machines, but they come from 

 the egg, and the power to differentiate ma- 

 chines is itself super-mechanical. Reproduc- 

 tion, regeneration and certain kinds of regu- 

 lation, occur in no machines known to man, 

 and hence any machines that reproduce, re- 

 generate or regulate are to this extent " iiber- 

 maschinelle." 



