SCIENCE 



Friday, April 14, 1916 



CONTENTS 

 The American Society of Zoologists and' the 

 Section of Zoology of the American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science: — 

 The Basis of Physiological Individuality in 

 Organisms: PRorEssoE C. M. Child 511 



The Basis of Individuality in Organisms 

 from the Standpoint of Cytology and 

 Embryology: Professor Edwin G. Conk- 

 LIN 523 



Besolutions in Memory of Budolph August 

 Wittlums and Charles Clifford Barrows . . . 527 



Scientific Notes and News 528 



University and Educational News 532 



Discussion and Correspondeno : — 



Sorison of the Sharh Eiver Eocene De- 

 posits: Gilbert D. Harris. A Phytophthora 

 on Oats: James MoMurpht. Endurance 

 of the Porpoise in Captivity: Dr. C. H. 

 TOWNSEND 532 



Scientific BooTcs: — 



Soustoun's A Treatise on Light: Dr. P. G. 

 Nutting. Garrison on John Shaw Billings: 

 Dr. W. "W. Keen 535 



Special Articles: — 



The Effect of Colored Light on the Mosaic 

 Disease of Tobacco: George H. Chapman. 537 



The National Academy of Sciences 538 



MSS. intended for publication and books, etc.. intended for 

 reyiew should be sent to Professor J. McKeen Cattell, Garrison- 

 on-Hudson. N. Y. 



THE BASIS OF PHYSIOLOGICAL INDI- 

 VIDUALITY IN ORGANISMS' 



The world of living things exists in the 

 form of what we call in every-day language 

 individuals. We must first inquire whether 

 this word "individual," as applied to or- 

 ganisms or their constituent parts, has any 

 real scientific value. Etymologically the 

 word means something which is undivided 

 or can not be divided, that is, it implies 

 the existence of a unity of some sort. But 

 divisibility is as truly a characteristic of 

 the organic individual as indivisibility, for 

 new individuals arise by processes of re- 

 production from parts of those previously 

 existing. 



How then do we recognize an organic 

 individual? The answer is not difficult, 

 though in certain cases it may be difficult 

 to determine whether a particular organic 

 entity is an individual or not. It is a cer- 

 tain unity and order in behavior in the 

 broadest sense which characterizes the in- 

 dividual, either living or non-living. In 

 the organic individual, whether it is a 

 whole organism or part of it, this orderly 

 behavior consists in a certain orderly ar- 

 rangement of parts in space and a certain 

 orderly sequence of events in time. The 

 problem of organic or physiological indi- 

 viduality is then the problem of the nature 

 of this unity and order. 



Many attempts at the solution of this 

 problem have been made. The so-called 

 vitalistic and neo-vitalistic theories postu- 



1 Read at a joint symposium of the American 

 Society of Zoologists and Section P of the Ameri- 

 can Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 Columbus, Ohio, December 30, 1915. 



/^.P 



