Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
of the cells that organ is added to organ, and apparatus to
systems. The task imposed upon them is to bring together
in quality and quantity the conditions for the life of the
cells”
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(LPL, p. 259).
Organisation does not aim to ensure the organism functions as
a whole. It simply creates the internal environment which provides
the cells with what they need to survive.
“In résumé, life resides within each cell, in each organic element,
which functions for its own account. It is not centralised in any part,
or in any organ or apparatus of the body. All these apparatus are
themselves created in the light of the life of the cell”
(LPL, p. 265).
Cells are however at the same time subordinate to the organism
through the very constitution of this internal environment. “
It is by
the infinite variety that the internal environment presents from one
place to another and by its particular and constant composition at a
given point that the subordination of the parts to the whole is estab-
lished
” (LPL p. 261). This is a very important aspect. “
It is the sub-
ordination of the parts to the whole that makes an integrated system,
a whole, or an individual, out of the complex being. It is in this way
that unity is established within living bodies
” (LPL pp. 262-263).
This subordination of cells is demonstrated in tissue graft experi-
ments which only succeed if they are done at the right place in the
organism, and by regeneration experiments in which the animal
rebuilds its original form after removal of a part (LPL pp. 260-266).
The organism indeed exists, therefore, but it is the result of cell life,
not its finality. Seen in this light, ontophylogenesis helps us to
understand how during the course of evolution we have been able
to go from selection acting on individual cells to selection acting on
the whole organism. Let us imagine that in the heap of cells (Fig. 16),
the structure of the dark cells is randomly slightly modified in such
a way that it does not alter their capacity to metabolise the nutrient
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Original text not in bold.
