1894.] The Scope of Modern Physiology. 475 
ment of the facts and conditions of cell-life in general. Sec- 
ondly, in composite organisms, the analysis of the functions of 
organs into those of the cells of which they are composed. 
Thirdly, the explication of the processes by which this local 
cell-life is directly, or indirectly, controlled and brought into 
relation with the life of the rest of the cells which compose the 
organism.” Now that the structure of protoplasm is fast be- 
coming disentangled, a rational cell-physiology will be possi- 
ble. In urging the need of investigating cell-function, I do 
not mean to imply that the cell is necessarily the ultimate 
unit, and that the organism is to be regarded as substantially 
a colony of physiologically independent cells. Much of the 
recent cytological work indicates that ere long the cell may be 
deposed from its hierarchical position.’ Cellular interactions 
are to form an increasingly prominent place in the researches 
of cell-physiologists. But, whether or not we grant with many 
that the cell is of secondary significance, we must allow that, 
in many respects at least, it may be regarded as a physiological 
unit; and from this standpoint it demands investigation. 
In these days of comparative science, it seems superfiuous to 
urge the necessity of a comparative physiology. No one, who 
thinks seriously of the matter, will doubt that along with the 
morphological distinctions between different species, genera, 
orders, or classes, and even in cases where gross morphological 
distinctions are not apparent, there must be physiological dif- 
ferences. Beyond the obvious facts of simple observation, these 
-are almost wholly uninvestigated. De Varigny, in hissugges- 
tive little book on Experimental Evolution, has collected a 
number of the known facts. Ina garden in the south of France, 
were growing, side by side, a number of plants of the same spe- 
cies. There appeared to be no morphological diflerences be- 
tween them, but some were indigenous to the soil in which 
-they were growing, while others had been imported from the 
Canary Islands. When they were attacked by frost, all the 
Canary Island forms perished, while the French forms were 
_ untouched. There was evidently some obscure physiological 
difference between them. The two common European species 
‘Cf. Whitman, Journal of Morphology, VIT, No 3, August, 1893. 
