92 'DETERMINANTS' VERSUS 



organic units. But, as above admitted, polarity as ascribed to atoms 

 is but a name for something of which we are ignorant — a name 

 for a hypothetical property which as much needs explanation as 

 that which it is used to explain. Nevertheless, in default of another 

 word, we must employ this ; taking care, however, to restrict its 

 meaning. If we simply substitute the term polarity for the cir- 

 cuitous expression, the power which certain units have of arranging 

 themselves into a special form, we may, without assuming any- 

 thing more than is proved, use the term organic polarity or 

 polarity of the organic units to signify the proximate cause of 

 the ability which organisms display of reproducing lost parts, 

 or of their having assumed the shape and structure which is 

 peculiar to them." 



Enquiring next into the possible nature of these units " which 

 possess the property of arranging themselves into the special 

 structure of the organisms to which they belong" he comes to 

 the conclusion that they cannot be any of the complex chemical 

 compounds entering into the composition of living matter. On 

 such a supposition the existence of endlessly varied forms of 

 animals and plants would be inexplicable ; so that he dismisses 

 the notion of their being ' chemical units.' He similarly dismisses 

 the notion that the powers in question can reside in ' morphological 

 units' or cells, as, independently of other reasons, "the formation 

 of a cell is to some extent a manifestation of this same peculiar 

 power." ' 



He then goes on to say : — " If then this organic polarity can be 

 possessed neither by the chemical units nor the morphological 

 units, we must conceive it as possessed by certain intermediate 

 units, which we may term physiological. There seems no alterna- 

 tive but to suppose that the chemical units combine into units 

 immensely more complex than themselves, complex as they are ; 

 and that in each organism the physiological units produced by this 

 further compounding of highly compound atoms, have a more or 

 less distinctive character. We must conclude that in each case 

 some slight difference of composition in these units leading to 

 some slight difference in their mutual play of forces, produces a 

 difference in the form which the aggregate of them assumes." 



These ' physiological units ' of Herbert Spencer would, therefore, 

 correspond almost exactly with the elementary vital units of 



■ Loc. cit. Vol. I, § 65. The old numbering of the sections is preserved in 

 the new edition of 1898. 



