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u6 HERBERT SPENCER

—that the continuous change which is the basis of
function, must come before the structure which brings
function into shape ? "

But all such discussions of "structure" and
" function " in the abstract tend to verbal quibbling.
We cannot have activity without something to act,
we cannot have metabolism without stuff. No one can
tell what the first thing that lived on the earth was
like, what organisation it had, or what it was able to
do, but we may be sure that vital organisation and
vital activity are only static and kinetic aspects of the
same thing. It is quite probable, however, that there
is no one thing that can be called protoplasm, for
vital function may depend upon the inter-relations or
inter-actions of several complex substances, none of
which could by itself be called alive; which are, how-
ever, held together in that unity which makes an
organism what it is. Just as the secret of a firm's
success may depend upon a particularly fortunate
association of partners, so it may be with vitality.¹

Waste and Repair.—Organisms are systems for
transforming matter and energy and the law of con-
servation holds good. " Each portion of mechanical
or other energy which an organism exerts implies
the transformation of as much organic matter as
contained this energy in a latent state," and the waste
must be made good by repair. We thus see why
plants with an enormous income of energy and little
expenditure of energy have no difficulty in sustaining
the balance between waste and repair 5 we under-
stand the relation between small waste, small activity,

¹ See J. Arthur Thomson's Progress of Science in the Nineteenth
1903, p. 317, and E, B. Wilson's The Cell in Development and
, 1500,



	u6 HERBERT SPENCER —that the continuous change which is the basis of function, must come before the structure which brings function into shape ? " But all such discussions of "structure" and " function " in the abstract tend to verbal quibbling. We cannot have activity without something to act, we cannot have metabolism without stuff. No one can tell what the first thing that lived on the earth was like, what organisation it had, or what it was able to do, but we may be sure that vital organisation and vital activity are only static and kinetic aspects of the same thing. It is quite probable, however, that there is no one thing that can be called protoplasm, for vital function may depend upon the inter-relations or inter-actions of several complex substances, none of which could by itself be called alive; which are, how- ever, held together in that unity which makes an organism what it is. Just as the secret of a firm's success may depend upon a particularly fortunate association of partners, so it may be with vitality.¹ Waste and Repair.—Organisms are systems for transforming matter and energy and the law of con- servation holds good. " Each portion of mechanical or other energy which an organism exerts implies the transformation of as much organic matter as contained this energy in a latent state," and the waste must be made good by repair. We thus see why plants with an enormous income of energy and little expenditure of energy have no difficulty in sustaining the balance between waste and repair 5 we under- stand the relation between small waste, small activity, ¹ See J. Arthur Thomson's Progress of Science in the Nineteenth 1903, p. 317, and E, B. Wilson's The Cell in Development and , 1500,