Page:The Scientific Monthly vol. 3.djvu/513

 ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF LIFE

��507

��5

��"hi

��15-

��18-

��40-

��I

��s

��li

��i

��3''

��2

��*OgOf MAJT

��Qg*TlllWAWY

��Turrwrr

��cn^AoSous

��ciiA(?SSB>us

��SB-

��s

��■or

��or

��BvoumoN

or

��EVOLUTION UWICEU.ULAW

urc

��rCMWVLVAMMN

��§

��OavONMN

��I

��OWOOMICIAH

��h

��RCWnnUWAN

��Changing bodily form and function and the ever changing velocity in character-complexes is to be regarded as an expression of physico- chemical energy resulting from the actions^ reactions and inter- actions of different parts of the or- ganism^ and^ as repeatedly stated in these lectures, the only vista which we enjoy at present into the causes of character-origin, char- acter-velocity and character-cooper- ation is through chemical catalysis, namely, through the hypothesis that actions and reactions of form and of motion liberate specific catalytic messengers in th6 nature of ferments, enzymes, hormones, which produce specific and cooper- ating interactions in every charac- ter-complex of the organism. In our survey of the marvelous evo- lution of the vertebrates we may constantly keep in mind the con- cept of the actions, reactions and interactions of the hard parts of the structural tissues, which are preserved in fossils. In this field of observation the chemical and physiological influences of the body can only be inferred and the relations of these physico-chemical influences to those of the chro- matin are absolutely unknown. Yet changes in the bodily hard parts invariably mirror the evolu- tion of the chromatin, in fact, this evolution is nowhere revealed in a more extraordinary manner than in the incessantly changing char- acters in such hard parts as the

labyrinthine foldings of the deep layers of enamel in the grinding teeth of the horse. This evolution of the hard parts in adaptation resolves itself into six chief and concurrent phenomena, namely :

acter-parallax idea has innumerable applications and can be expressed quanti- tatively. — ^W. K. Gregory.

��LAUNENTIAN

��OMNV*.!^ MCCWATS*

��Fig. 6. Geologic Timb Scaub. Pre- pared by the author and C. A. Reeds after Schuchert.

�� �