292 THE AMERICAN NA TURALIST. [Vol. XXXVI I L 



organisms. The earth is a spheroid whirling in space at a 

 rate decreasing with inconceivable slowness. Its position with 

 relation to other bodies of the solar and other planetary systems 

 changes also with inconceivable slowness. It possesses a degree 

 and a distribution of heat throughout its mass which changes 

 also with wonderful slowness. The earth possesses size, struc- 

 ture, composition, compactness, and other physical and chemical 

 properties which change so slowly that in the lapse of ages 

 differences can scarcely be detected, and millions of generations 

 come and go under exactly like influences. 



Passing now from these unchanging factors to the living 

 organism itself, we must see that every particle of protoplasm is 

 affected by the components and by the properties of the atmos- 

 phere, by the physical and chemical qualities of water, by the 

 force of gravity, and by the earth as a whole. Every particle of 

 protoplasm since it came into existence as such, every molecule 

 of every compound in it, and every atom in the molecule, has 

 existed from its beginning on this earth under these conditions 

 and subject to these influences. None of these influences has 

 ever been eliminated by experiment, nor has experiment ever 

 resulted in accomplishing any fundamental change in a living 

 organism or series of living organisms. Man as an experimenter 

 cannot control these influences but is controlled by them. Is he 

 not controlled by them in every other relation in life .? Is man 

 any more controlled by these unchanging influences than any 

 other living or lifeless thing .? 



In the living substance of sperm and egg the component 

 parts, particles, molecules, and atoms, have been subjected to 

 these unchanging forces, not only since coming together as the 

 hvmg structure, but before ; and after sperm and egg fuse the 

 same is true ; and in the growth of the fertilized egg every 

 particle of new material is formed, placed, and kept in place 

 under these influences. From the beginning to the end of its 

 career every individual plant and animal is subjected to these 

 continuous and uniform influences. But so also is every other 

 thing. And as we find all common salt crystals behaving alike 

 and being fundamentally alike at the same time that they are 

 unlike the crystals of all other substances subjected to these 



