i74 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



LIFE FKOM THE BIOLOGIST'S STANDPOINT 1 



By Professor WILLIAM E. RITTER 



MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION OF SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA 



THE data of biology are living plants and animals. These are what 

 nature presents. To these we must always go in order to make 

 a beginning at any investigation. Is one interested in ganglionic cells, 

 or germ cells, or liver secretions, or degenerate organs? He must 

 find some kind of animal that has, or produces, or can yield such things. 

 In making a successful quest for '''material," it always turns out that 

 a particular individual plant or animal, one or more, furnishes it. 

 One may not be able to tell exactly what he means by an individual tree 

 or man, but he must have one before he can study it or any part of it. 

 Definitions of natural objects come at the end, rather than at the begin- 

 ning, of our knowledge of them. 



"We biologists frequently speak of the principle of life, or the germs 

 of life, and of many other particular manifestations of organisms, as 

 though they were something really existent independently of particular 

 organisms. Such questions as: Which came first, or is more funda- 

 mental, the chick or the egg; structure or function; life or organiza- 

 tion? are frequently asked with more or less seriousness. Herbert 

 Spencer devotes considerable space to the inquiry as to whether life or 

 organization appeared first. He writes : 



It may be argued that on the hypothesis of Evolution, Life necessarily 

 comes before organisation. On this hypothesis, organic matter in a state of 

 homogeneous aggregation must precede organic matter in a state of heterogeneous 

 aggregation. But since the passing from a structureless state to a structural 

 state is itself a vital proeess, it follows that vital activity must have existed 

 while there was yet no structure: structure could not else arise. That function 

 takes precedence of structure seems also implied in the definition of Life. 



He continues : • 



If Life is shown by inner actions so adjusted as to balance outer actions 



1 During the academic year 1908-9 the program of the Philosophical Union 

 of the University of California consisted of a series of discussions led by 

 speakers representing various departments of biology and framed in a spirit 

 -compatible with the broad aims of such an association. This was the con- 

 cluding paper of the year. 



Wir denken heute durchweg more biologico. . . . 



. . . dass die Biologie selbst heute noch im Zustand des garenden Werdens, 

 der tastenden Unsicherheit sich befindet, also fur eine Grundlegung der sichersten 

 aller Wissenschaften, der formel Logik, noch keine Eignung besitzt, begeht der 

 Pragmatismus denselben Circulus vitiosus dem auch Hume nicht zu entrinnen 

 vermochte. . . . — Ludwig Stein. 



