ow light on the essential idea of
an organism, they may aid us in gaining a right view of our "cell
republic."

Says Whitman in a very interesting article on the "Inadequacy of the
Cell-Theory": "That organization precedes cell-formation and
regulates it, rather than the reverse, is a conclusion that forces
itself upon us from many sides." "The structure which we see in a
cell-mosaic is something superadded to organization, not itself the
foundation of organization. Comparative embryology reminds us at
every turn that the organism dominates cell-formation, using for
the same purpose one, several, or many cells, massing its material
and directing its movements, and shaping its organs as if cells did
not exist, or as if they existed only in complete subordination to
its will, if I may so speak. The organization of the egg is carried
forward to the adult as an unbroken physiological unity, or
individuality, through all modifications and transformations." And
Wilson, Whitman, Hertwig, and others urge "that the organism as a
whole controls the formative processes going on in each part" of the
embryo. And many years ago Huxley wrote, "They (the cells) are no
more the producers of the vital phenomena than the shells scattered
along the sea-beach are the instruments by which the gravitative
force of the moon acts upon the ocean. Like these, the cells mark
only where the vital tides have been, and how they have acted."[A]

[Footnote A: See articles by Whitman and Wilson, Journal of
Morphology, vol. viii., pp. 649, 607, etc.]

"Interaction of cells" can help us but little. For how can
neighboring cells direct others placed in a new position? The
expression, if not positively misleading and untrue, is at the best
only a restatement of fact. It certainly offers no explanation.
Flood-tide is not due to the interaction of particles of water,
though this may influence the form of the waves.

The centre of control is therefore not to be sought in individual
cells, whether germ-cells or somatic, but in the organism. And it is
the whole organism, one and indivisible, which controls in germ,
embryo, and adult, in egg and owl. This individuality, or whatever
you will call it, impresses itself upon developing somatic cells,
moulding them into appropriate organs, and upon germ-cells in
process of formation, moulding them so that they may continue its
sway. The muscle, modified by use or disuse, is a better expression
of the individ