ON THE DIRECTIVITY OF LIFE. 



259 



ditions and environments, there is no evidence whatever that they 

 had a common origin, or that one form proceeded from the other, 

 nor do we know which of the two may have been the earlier form. 

 Consequently, to state that Self-adaptation is the " Origin of Species " 

 is not founded upon any sufficient evidence, even though Self- 

 adaptation may produce some more or less apparent modification. 



Page 249, paragraph 7. The term " Directivity " is in every way 

 a valuable one if we attribute the Directivity, not to some inherent 

 quality of Life, but to the First Supreme Cause and Author — 

 namely, God Himself. 



Page 249, paragraph 8. Prof essor Henslow, after claiming Direc- 

 tivity as an attribute of Life, states that " no force can direct itself 

 or act upon matter in a determined purposeful manner," and as 

 Life endowed with Directivity would be a " Force," the Professor 

 hereby denies to Life the very attribute which he claims for it, 

 namely, " Directivity." 



Page 250, first paragraph. I know of no evidence to prove that 

 " in some quadrupeds paws become paddles, as in whales, seals, and 

 other marine mammalia," and certainly no experiments have proved 

 this. It is purely a hypothesis and nothing more. 



Page 251, paragraph 4. After the observations already made I 

 would only say that the life in the protoplasm is not the possessor 

 of Directivity, but the subject of Directivity by God Himself, just in 

 the same way as chemical forces are directed by the chemist in his 

 laboratory. 



Page 251, line 17. Is the Professor correct in saying that the cell 

 wall is not living? Has it not as much life as the protoplasm 

 within the cell when it is enabled to secrete cellulose 1 



Page 252, paragraph 5. The professor says that " when seeds get 

 dispersed and find themselves in some different kind of surroundings 

 the plantlets at once begin to assume new features." Anyone 

 present would conclude from these words that it is the invariable 

 result when seeds are dispersed and sown under varying conditions 

 that the plantlets begin to assume new features. With all respect 

 to Professor Henslow, I would absolutely deny that this is so. 

 Although some slight modifications may occasionally be seen under 

 changed environments, yet these acquired characteristics cannot by 

 experiment be proved to be "permanent," i.e., capable of being 

 transmitted, or if so, then only in such a very limited degree as 



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