The Principles of Biology, Volume 1 (of 2)Spencer, Herbert
Science
The Principles of Biology, Volume 1 (of 2)
Spencer, Herbert
Biology
It may be thought that there are still a few inorganic actions included in
the definition; as, for example, that displayed by the mis-named
storm-glass. The feathery crystallization which, on a certain change of
temperature, takes place in its contained solution, and which afterwards
dissolves to reappear in new forms under new conditions, may be held to
present simultaneous and successive changes that are to some extent
heterogeneous, that occur with some definiteness of combination, and, above
all, occur in apparent correspondence with external changes. In this case
vegetal life is simulated to a considerable extent; but it is _merely_
simulated. The relation between the phenomena occurring in the storm-glass
and in the atmosphere respectively, is not a correspondence at all, in the
proper sense of the word. Outside there is a thermal change; inside there
is a change of atomic arrangement. Outside there is another thermal change;
inside there is another change of atomic arrangement. But subtle as is the
dependence of each internal upon each external change, the connexion
between them does not, in the abstract, differ from the connexion between
the motion of a straw and the motion of the wind that disturbs it. In
either case a change produces a change, and there it ends. The alteration
wrought by some environing agency on this or any other inanimate object,
does not tend to induce in it a secondary alteration which anticipates some
secondary alteration in the environment. But in every living body there is
a tendency towards secondary alterations of this nature; and it is in their
production that the correspondence consists. The difference may be best
expressed by symbols. Let A be a change in the environment, and B some
resulting change in an inorganic mass. Then A having produced B, the action
ceases. Though the change A in the environment is followed by some
consequent change _a_ in it; no parallel sequence in the inorganic mass
simultaneously generates in it some change _b_ that has reference to the
change _a_. But if we take a living body of the requisite organization, and
let the change A impress on it some change C; then, while in the
environment A is occasioning _a_, in the living body C will be occasioning
_c_; of which _a_ and _c_ will show a certain concord in time, place, or
intensity. And while it is _in_ the continuous production of such concords
or correspondences that Life consists, it is _by_ the continuous production
of them that Life is maintained.
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