The Organism

From time to time in the world process objects are formed by accretion, or mixture, or chemical reaction. Sometimes they are rather stable, and endure; sometimes they disintegrate, or change progressively into other objects. Among the complex and relatively stable objects are some which not only grow but repair their losses and generate more objects of their kind. These are called living objects; the simplest are single cells. They live by assimilating material from the world outside, and by chemical reaction with outside matter. Such new matter is not merely added to, it is organized within, the living structure.

Sometimes these living objects divide to form two such living objects. Sometimes these two new objects cling together, and when each of these two divides, the four cling together; the process may continue until a very complicated structure appears. This complexity depends not merely on the number and diversity of cells, but on their interrelatedness. Every cell is part of the environment of every other cell, and the system as a whole maintains itself as it grows. Some cells in this complex structure--the "germ cells"--can survive and generate a new complex structure of the same general type. Within the germ cells are rod-like bodies, chromosomes, along which are ranged the genes, the tiny carriers of hereditary traits.

The clues to this process appear to lie, first, in the ceaseless flux and change of inorganic nature, and the occasional realization of favorable conditions for the formation of living particles; second, in the tendency of individuals of each new generation, though resembling their parents, to vary somewhat from one another (partly through slight fortuitous recombinations of the chemical tendencies received from the parents, partly through sudden and dramatic chemical alterations--mutations--in the germ cells); third, in the suitability of some but not all, of the resulting individuals of each generation to carry on with the environment the kind of interaction called life.

It follows that, though the environment may change, there will be in each generation some organisms which can live until the reproduction age; and that as members of a type wander into different environments, some will survive in one kind of environment, others will be able to survive only in a very different environment, so that out of nature's prodigality a few will be found here and there, carrying on the life process in terms which each environment permits. There will be many species of creatures, each clinging to its own world. Within each species, however, there are always differences--differences not only in specific traits, but in the interrelations of these traits, the structure of the whole individual. Each such individual moves in its own environment, necessarily not quite identical with that of another. As the fledgling chickadees make their way to the windowsills, it is obvious that each is different from the rest; and each has found its favorite window, and approaches it in its own way.

These are, then, primitive individual personalities, defined first in terms of the species-environment relation, second in terms of the individual-environment relation realized in their own specific case. Their existence is rooted in two things: first, the world which has chosen them and constantly maintained them by flowing into them and allowing them to flow into it; second, the continuity of the stream of heredity, reaching back to the remotest beginnings of life, which has itself at all times maintained some degree of isolation while maintaining its own give-and-take with the changing environments. The individual organism can no more be considered an isolated object than it can be considered homogeneous with the environment, for either its complete isolation or, on the other hand, the loss of its boundaries would equally signify its obliteration. It is a region of relatively high structuring in a field of complex and ever-changing relations.

The nature of the inner structure needs closer attention. First of all, it is chemical. The particles visible within an individual cell are seen to change, and the chemist's methods show that they change in accordance with general chemical principles. The laws of the organism relate first, then, to chemical compounds within the body, the chemical reactions between them, and the chemical reactions with the outer world. Structure is first of all a name for a system of chemical reactions which define the life of the organism, a system involving relations between both simultaneous and successive reactions, such that the organism is continually in touch with its environment yet is neither inundated by it nor encapsulated from it. This system, however, does more than preserve life; it provides for change and growth, for a sequence of related changes as well as the preservation of life from moment to moment. Part of this systematic change is provided by specific enzymes which facilitate, over a long period, a specific kind of reaction, the influence of which is to guarantee growth at a certain pace; but still other enzymes must keep pace, so that the growing totality is still in balance. The conception of system is important, for if the reactions were chaotic or independent, the organism could not exist. Life was achieved in the first place because one reaction led to another which led to a third, etc., in such a way as to keep the fires burning; accretion and juxtaposition alone would never have given life. It was through system, through inner organization, that the integrity of the individual was maintained despite the fluid interaction with the world. The first definition of personality is therefore in terms of a biochemical system. Every individual is an almost infinitely complex pattern of biochemical tendencies. There is much more to enter into the definition; but this is the first foundation principle.

The chemical system of an individual member of a species differs somewhat, however, from that of another individual. This is conspicuously true in a starfish, even more so in a kitten. Such biochemical individuality is recognizable even in the embryo, and clearly in the newborn; and upon this early individuality are impressed still further individualities due to the vicissitudes of the individual life process, the individual organism-environment interactions.

The life process can occur only within rather narrow limits of temperature and oxygen concentration, and of alkalinity-acidity. There are in fact a very large number of specific limiting conditions which must be realized if life is to go on. Consequently, within the tenuous capsule of the living, a much higher degree of constancy is maintained than in the world outside. In particular, the nervous system can carry on its functions only under very specific determining and limiting conditions. Thanks to the labors of biochemists and physiologists, two types of advance have been made in recent years with reference to this principle: First, its general relation to the physiology of normal tissues has been more sharply defined; and second, the types of constancy which are requisite have been more fully specified. For Cannon the principle of inner constancy is formulated under the term homeostasis, meaning the "maintenance of stability."