The Whence and the Whither of Man: A Brief History of His Origin and Development through Conformity to Environment; Being the Morse Lectures of 1895Tyler, John M. (John Mason)
Religion
The Whence and the Whither of Man: A Brief History of His Origin and Development through Conformity to Environment; Being the Morse Lectures of 1895
Tyler, John M. (John Mason)
Evolution
Driesch changed by pressure the relative position of the cells of a
very young embryo, so that those which in a normal embryo would have
produced one organ were now compelled, if used at all, to form quite
a different one. And yet these displaced cells formed the organ
required of cells normally occupying this new position, not the one
for which they were normally intended. And the organ which they
would have builded in a normal embryo was now formed by other cells
transferred to their rightful place.
What made them thus change? Not change of substance or structure,
for the slight pressure could hardly have modified this. Not change
of nutriment. The only visible or easily conceivable change was in
position relative to other cells of the embryo.
Let us in imagination simplify Driesch's experiment, for the sake of
gaining a clearer view of its meaning. In a certain embryo at an
early stage are certain cells whose descendants should form the
lining of the intestine and be used in the adult for digestion. A
second set of cells should form muscle endowed mainly with
contractility. When these two sets of cells, or some of them,
exchange positions in the embryo, they exchange lines of
development. The first set now form muscle, the second digestive
tissue. The only change has been in their relative positions.
Driesch maintains, therefore, that the goal of development in any
embryonic cell is determined not by structure or nutriment but by
position. And this would seem to be true of the cells of the
earliest embryonic stages.
Certain other experiments point in the same direction. Cut a hydra
into equal halves and each half will form a complete animal. The
lower half forms a new top, with mouth and tentacles; the upper
half, a new base. Cut the other hydra a hair's-breadth farther up.
The same layer of cells which in the first animal formed the lower
exposed surface of the upper half now forms the upper exposed
surface of the lower half. And with this change of position it has
changed its line of development; it will now give rise to a new
upper half, not a base as before. The same experiment can be tried
on certain worms with similar results, only head and tail differ far
more than top and base of hydra. Difference in the position of cells
has made vast difference in their line of development. Now in both
embryo and adult there must be some directing influence guiding
these cells. What is it?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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