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The use of the term entergogenesis makes it practicable to in- 

 dicate the essential distinction existing between the modifications 

 produced through the mediation of internal forces and those arising 

 as the direct results of the action of external forces by means of 

 the term ectergogenesis and ectergogenic. 



These explanatory remarks serve to show that Ctetology is a 

 branch of research which needs to be isolated from researches upon 

 growth and Genesiology, since it is devoted to the study of the ori- 

 gin of acquired characteristics, and therefore necessarily considers 

 all of the internal reactions of the organisms in response to the ac- 

 tion of physical forces, as well as the more obscure reactions of 

 structures which are produced solely by (or supposed to be produced 

 by) the direct physical or chemical action of external physical 

 forces. 



BlOPLASTOLOGY. 



The separation of Auxology or Bathmology, Genesiology and 

 Ctetology show also that the study of the correlations of ontogeny 

 and phylogeny to be distinct from either of these, and this branch 

 of research can be designated by the term Bioplastology from 

 Bins, life, and niaards, meaning molded or formed.* 



To sum up in a few words the rather ambitious aims of this com- 

 paratively new recruit in the army of investigation, it aspires to 

 show that the phenomena of individual life are parallel with those 

 of its own phylum and that both follow the same law of morpho- 



* Bioplasm, bioplast, bioplastic have already been used by Beale and others for the liv- 

 ing cell and its contents, but the term " Bioplastology " has not been used, nor have the 

 names proposed by Beale been generally adopted. If they were, Bioplasmology would 

 cover the requirements of students of such phenomena, and there is already in use Plas- 

 mology with about the same meaning, and Histology for the descriptive side of the study 

 of cellular structures. 



Biogeny has been used in extra scientific literature by Fiske with the same meaning as 

 Bioplastology, and Haeckel has named the law of embryonic and ancestral correlation 

 the law of biogenesis, but there is a strong objection to both of these. Biogenesis is the 

 name given to the theory of the origin or genesis of life from life in contradistinction 

 to the assumption of spontaneous generation or abiogenesis and has a well-established 

 place in scientific literature. Therefore, while the law of correlation of the stages of 

 development and those of the evolution of the phylum may, if one chooses, be called a 

 law of biogenesis, it is more accurate to consider it a law of correlation in Bioplastology, 

 or better still, the law of palingenesis or regular repetition of ancestral characters which 

 very nearly expresses what the discoverer, Louis Agassiz, saw and described. The fact 

 that Agassiz was wrong in his theory, not believing in evolution and not recognizing 

 the meaning of his law in this sense, does not absolve those who profit by his labors from 

 recognizing his discovery of the facts and his obviously full acquaintance with the law 

 and;its applications to the explanation of the relations of organisms. It is Agassiz' law, 

 not Haeckel's. 



