The Physical Basis of Mind: Being the Second Series of Problems of Life and Mind.Lewes, George Henry
Philosophy
The Physical Basis of Mind: Being the Second Series of Problems of Life and Mind.
Lewes, George Henry
Mind and body; Psychophysiology
115. A final argument to show that the reproduction is not determined
by any ruling Idea, but by the organic conditions and the necessary
stages of evolution, is seen in the reappearance of a tumor or cancer
after it has been removed. We find the new tissue appear with all the
characters of the normal tissue of the gland, then rapidly assume one
by one the characters of the diseased tissue which had been removed;
and there as on is, that the regeneration of the tissue is accompanied
by the same abnormal conditions which formerly gave rise to the tumor:
the directions of “crystallization” are similar because the conditions
are similar. In every case of growth or regrowth the conditions being
the same, the result must be the same.
116. It seems a truism to insist that similarity in the results must be
due to similarity in the conditions; yet it is one which many theorists
disregard; and especially do we need to bear it in mind when arguing
about Species. I will here only touch on the suggestive topic of the
analogies observed not simply among animals at the extreme ends of the
scale, but also between animals and plants where the idea of a direct
kinship is out of the question.
My very imperfect zoölogical knowledge will not allow me to adduce a
long array of instances, but such an array will assuredly occur to
every well-stored mind. It is enough to point to the many analogies
of Function, more especially in the reproductive processes--to the
existence of burrowers, waders, flyers, swimmers in various classes--to
the existence of predatory mammals, predatory birds, predatory
reptiles, predatory insects by the side of herbivorous congeners,--to
the nest-building and incubating fishes; and in the matter of Structure
the analogies are even more illustrative when we consider the widely
diffused spicula, setæ, spines, hooks, tentacles, beaks, feathery
forms, nettling-organs, poison-sacs, luminous organs, etc.; because
these have the obvious impress of being due to a community of substance
under similar conditions rather than to a community of kinship. The
beak of the tadpole, the cephalopod, the male salmon, and the bird,
are no doubt in many respects unlike; but there is a significant
likeness among them, which constitutes a true analogy. I think there
is such an analogy between the air-bladder of fishes and the tracheal
rudiment which is found in the gnat-larva (_Corethra plumicornis_).[60]
Very remarkable also is the resemblance of the _avicularium_, or
“bird’s-head process,” on the polyzoon known popularly as the Corkscrew
Coralline (_Bugula avicularia_), which presents us in miniature
with a vulture’s head--two mandibles, one fixed, the other moved by
muscles visible within the head. No one can watch this organ snapping
incessantly, without being reminded of a vulture, yet no one would
suppose for a moment that the resemblance has anything to do with
kinship.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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