IXDRTDUATIOX .\XD REPRODUCTIOX 201 



there are many facts which indicate that their polarit}- is not 

 self-determined, but is either acquired during the course of their 

 existence as a reaction to external conditions, or is merely the 

 polarity of the parent ceU persisting in. the products of diAision. 

 ^Moreover, there are various acti\-ities in the cell which are mani- 

 festly not axiate but radiate, and, finally, no one has been able to 

 discover the sHghtest indication of polarity in the fundamental 

 physical structure or optical properties of protoplasm. 



But the fact remains that most organisms possess one or more 

 axes, the axes of polarity and s}inmetr\-, so called, and that these 

 axes are manifestiy of fundamental importance in individuation. 

 The degree of physiological coherence and unity in the indi^-idual 

 is associated with the definiteness and fixit}- of its axes, and develop- 

 ment always proceeds in a definite and orderly way with reference 

 to whatever axes may exist. EA-idently the axes of the organism 

 are not simply geometrical fictions, but rather the expression of 

 some fundamental factor in the axiate type of indixdduation, a 

 factor which influences the rate and character of the metaboHc 

 reactions and so plays an essential part in both morphogenesis and 

 functional acti^-ity. 



In the more complex organisms a polarity and symmetry of the 

 whole organism often exist at the same time with a multitude of 

 polarities and s\Tnmetries of various parts, organs, and cells 

 which do not coincide with the general axes, but make aU possible 

 angles with them and may be widely variable. This fact makes it 

 CA-ident at once that the axiation of the organism as a whole is not 

 simply the general expression of the axiation of its parts. Many 

 different polarities and SATnmetries coexist and persist independ- 

 ently of each other, and yet the whole course of development is 

 an orderly process with a definite result. 



These characteristics of organic indi\-iduals are not satisfactorily 

 accoimted for by the current theories of the organism, ^^^lether 

 we regard the organism from the A-iewpoint of the corpuscular 

 theories as an aggregation of distinct, self -perpetuating entities, 

 or as a chemical or physico-chemical system, we cannot escape the 

 necessity- of accounting in some way for its definite and orderly 

 beha\"ior and for the verj' eA"ident relation in axiate forms between 



