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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLII. No. 1081 



In exactly like manner physical science has 

 no need of the idea of organization, and knows 

 it not. But biology, with organization as its 

 central fact, both knows and uses physics and 

 chemistry. Logically the less abstract encloses 

 and includes the more abstract. The more ab- 

 stract meantime preserves its full validity in 

 the domain of the less abstract, just as, for ex- 

 ample, the laws of number and extension hold 

 in the physical sciences. So generally true is 

 this that there is hardly any need of seeking 

 illustrations. Haldane's own studies are 

 studies of the organization of the physical and 

 chemical processes of respiration. There can 

 be no doubt that the idea of organization is 

 what informs and interprets such investiga- 

 tions, and that it is an indispensable aid in 

 their pursuit. Quite recently, for example, 

 it has successfully guided Cannon in his re- 

 searches on the physiology of fear and rage. 



There is even a possibility, we may note in 

 passing, in a certain restricted field, of pur- 

 suing the study of organization without regard 

 to physics and chemistry. But that field is 

 quite different from physiology, it is the field 

 of animal behavior. In physiology there is no 

 such possibility. 



The truth seems to be that the relation of an 

 organism to cellular mechanisms is not unlike 

 the relation of a symphony to the sound waves 

 which bear it to the ear. It is absurd to re- 

 gard the symphony as merely the sum of the 

 waves of sound, just as it is absurd to regard 

 the organism as merely the sum of the bio- 

 physical and biochemical phenomena. But it 

 is quite as absurd to deny that the sound 

 waves are in a very real sense (even if they are 

 not in " reality ") the component parts of the 

 symphony. They are, moreover, the only com- 

 ponent parts which at present can be profitably 

 investigated, as the difference between the sub- 

 stantial character of musical science, and our 

 vague ideas about the individuality of thematic 

 material well shows. If we turn to Haldane's 

 own experimental researches we shall find that 

 that is precisely his own standpoint as a prac- 

 tical physiologist; he analyzes the phenomena 

 of organization into their component physical 



and chemical parts. If then " all attempts to 

 trace the ultimate mechanism of life must be 

 given up as meaningless," that can be only 

 because there are only mechanisms, no ultimate 

 mechanism of life. And for my own part I am 

 obliged to say regarding his statement : " The 

 phenomena of life are of such a nature that 

 no physical or chemical explanation of them is 

 remotely conceivable," that it is true only in a 

 sense quite different from its apparent mean- 

 ing, and is of no scientific interest. 



A sound understanding of the relation be- 

 tween organic unity and physical phenomena 

 involves no hypothesis regarding the nature of 

 the external world or of reality. It may in 

 the past have had a tendency to involve false 

 ideas upon that subject in much the same way 

 that the practical life of affairs does. But in 

 physiology as in physics there is, I believe, no 

 need to worry about the nature of reality. If 

 the physiologist has foolish or mistaken notions 

 on that subject, it is his private concern. Such 

 ideas may affect his attitude toward the world ; 

 they do not affect his attitude toward his sci- 

 ence. For in that he is dealing not with 

 "reality," but with "truth," and the "truth" 

 of his physical and chemical discoveries, when 

 properly attested, is of exactly the same order 

 as the truth of a proposition in geometry or of 

 a law of harmony, which is enough. 



Another characteristic of Haldane's thought 

 . is that he seems to attribute more value to 

 concrete than to abstract scientific knowledge. 

 From the purely metaphysical point of view 

 such an attitude is quite intelligible. But 

 scientifically it appears to be a matter of taste. 

 The mathematical law will always have its 

 devotees, and it will be many a day before 

 such men will see in the progress of psychology 

 anything to equal Newton's "Principia" in 

 interest, in value or in greatness. And yet I 

 am persuaded that such men will heartily 

 recognize the concept of organization for what 

 it is. They must then admit the need of Hal- 

 dane's most interesting and timely discussion 

 of a very difiicult subject, and repay him with 

 their gratitude. 



L. J. Hknderson 



Hakvaed University 



