A Mechanico-Physiological Theory of Organic EvolutionNägeli, Carl
Science
A Mechanico-Physiological Theory of Organic Evolution
Nägeli, Carl
Evolution
Since various intervening transpositions follow upon a stimulus in the
organism, the final result which appears as a reaction may turn out
variously. The same external causes may, according to the nature of the
organism and other circumstances, have very unlike variations as a
result. But the internal rearrangement produces in a definite case very
definite variations.
On account of the various intermediate steps it is often difficult to
discover the external cause of a given adaptive variation. In many cases
we recognize it without difficulty in a definite mechanical process or
in warmth, light or evaporation. For the most part the stimulus awakens
in the organism merely a want, which the reaction of the organism
endeavors to supply. Hence it appears that want or lack alone is able to
bring about such reactions. Moreover, in the sphere of sex, electric(?)
attractions and repulsions co-operate between the idioplasmic
determinants to produce phylogenetic variations.
The adaptations of the fully developed organism, which are the results
of external influences, consist either only of a specific molecular
character (irritability), by virtue of which the individual is capable
of responding to those influences with temporary or permanent phenomena,
or they consist of finished arrangements. The latter have, in general, a
double function: either they protect the organism from external
influences whose results they are, or they place it in a condition to
apply such environmental influences to their advantage. The
preponderance of the one or the other led to the development of the
plant or the animal kingdom. In the one case the primordial plasma
formed in the cellulose cell wall a stimulus-proof covering. On account
of this cell membrane being insensible to stimuli, adaptations in the
plant kingdom were restricted essentially to the spheres of nutrition
and reproduction. In the other case the irritability and mobility of the
primordial plasma increased so that it was placed in a condition to
avoid the irritant or make it serviceable by accommodating itself to it.
The cells sensible to irritants led in the animal kingdom to the
formation of organs of sense and the nervous system.
12. CONDITIONS OF PHYLOGENETIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE DETERMINANTS. ATAVISM.
In the primordial condition, formation and development of the
determinants coincide, since the plasma constituting the organism
possesses the capability of growing by intussusception of new micellae
and of changing this growth through the action of inner and outer
causes. But as the primordial plasma differentiates into idioplasm and
soma-plasm, the formation of determinants consists in the transformation
of the idioplasm, while the development of determinants consists in the
production of soma-plasm and of non-plasmic substances under the
influence of the idioplasm.
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