Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 4.djvu/181

 physical or chemical conditions, such as light, nascency, etc., unite and rise into plane No. 3, i. e., form organic matter. In both cases there is chemical union under certain physical conditions; but in the latter there is one unique condition, viz., the previous existence then and there of organic matter, under the guidance of which apparently the transformation of matter takes place. In a word, organic matter is necessary to produce organic matter; there is here a law of like producing like—there is an assimilation of matter.

Again, physical force changes into other forms of physical force, or into chemical force, under certain physical conditions; so also physical and chemical forces are changed into vital force under certain physical conditions. But, in addition, there is one altogether unique condition of the latter change, viz., the previous existence then and there of vital force. Here, again, like produces like—here, again, there is assimilation of force.

This law of like producing like—this law of assimilation of matter and force—runs throughout all vital phenomena, runs to the minutest details. It is a universal law of generation, and determines the existence of species; it is the law of formation of organic matter and organic force; it determines all the varieties of organic matter which we call tissues and organs, and all the varieties of organic force which we call functions. The same nutrient pabulum, endowed with the same properties and powers, carried to all parts of a complex organism by this wonderful law of like producing like, is changed into the most various forms and endowed with the most various powers. There are certainly limits and exceptions to this law, however; otherwise differentiation of tissues, organs, and functions, could not take place in embryonic development; but the limits and exceptions are themselves subject to a law even more wonderful than the law of like producing like itself, viz., the law of evolution. There is in all organic nature, whether organic kingdom, organic individual, or organic tissues, a law of variation, strongest in the early stages, limited very strictly by another law—the law of inheritance, of like producing like.

d. We have seen that all development takes place at the expense of decay—all elevation of one thing, in one place, at the expense of corresponding running down of something else in another place. Force is only transferred and transformed. The plant draws its force from the sun, and therefore what the plant gains the sun loses. Animals draw from plants, and therefore what the animal kingdom gains the vegetable kingdom loses. Again, an egg, a seed, or a chrysalis, developing to a higher condition, and yet taking nothing ab extra, must lose weight. Some part must run down, in order that the remainder should be raised to a higher condition. The amount of evolution is measured by the loss of weight. By the law of conservation of force, it is inconceivable that it should be otherwise. Evidently, therefore, in the universe, evolution of one part must be at the