Essays On Education And Kindred Subjects (Fiscle Part- 11) - Herbert Spencer (if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud txt) 📗
- Author: Herbert Spencer
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Meteorological Conditions Thousands Of Miles Off, On All Sides, Would Be
More Or Less Revolutionised.
Thus, Without Taking Into Account The Infinitude Of Modifications Which
These Changes Of Climate Would Produce Upon The Flora And Fauna, Both Of
Land And Sea, The Reader Will See The Immense Heterogeneity Of The
Results Wrought Out By One Force, When That Force Expends Itself Upon A
Previously Complicated Area; And He Will Readily Draw The Corollary That
From The Beginning The Complication Has Advanced At An Increasing Rate.
Before Going On To Show How Organic Progress Also Depends Upon The
Universal Law That Every Force Produces More Than One Change, We Have
To Notice The Manifestation Of This Law In Yet Another Species Of
Inorganic Progress--Namely, Chemical. The Same General Causes That Have
Wrought Out The Heterogeneity Of The Earth, Physically Considered, Have
Simultaneously Wrought Out Its Chemical Heterogeneity. Without Dwelling
Upon The General Fact That The Forces Which Have Been Increasing The
Variety And Complexity Of Geological Formations, Have, At The Same Time,
Been Bringing Into Contact Elements Not Previously Exposed To Each Other
Under Conditions Favourable To Union, And So Have Been Adding To The
Number Of Chemical Compounds, Let Us Pass To The More Important
Complications That Have Resulted From The Cooling Of The Earth.
There Is Every Reason To Believe That At An Extreme Heat The Elements
Cannot Combine. Even Under Such Heat As Can Be Artificially Produced,
Some Very Strong Affinities Yield, As For Instance, That Of Oxygen For
Hydrogen; And The Great Majority Of Chemical Compounds Are Decomposed At
Much Lower Temperatures. But Without Insisting Upon The Highly Probable
Inference, That When The Earth Was In Its First State Of Incandescence
There Were No Chemical Combinations At All, It Will Suffice Our Purpose
To Point To The Unquestionable Fact That The Compounds That Can Exist At
The Highest Temperatures, And Which Must, Therefore, Have Been The First
That Were Formed As The Earth Cooled, Are Those Of The Simplest
Constitutions. The Protoxides--Including Under That Head The Alkalies,
Earths, Etc.--Are, As A Class, The Most Stable Compounds We Know: Most
Of Them Resisting Decomposition By Any Heat We Can Generate. These,
Consisting Severally Of One Atom Of Each Component Element, Are
Combinations Of The Simplest Order--Are But One Degree Less Homogeneous
Than The Elements Themselves. More Heterogeneous Than These, Less
Stable, And Therefore Later In The Earth's History, Are The Deutoxides,
Tritoxides, Peroxides, Etc.; In Which Two, Three, Four, Or More Atoms Of
Oxygen Are United With One Atom Of Metal Or Other Element. Higher Than
These In Heterogeneity Are The Hydrates; In Which An Oxide Of Hydrogen,
United With An Oxide Of Some Other Element, Forms A Substance Whose
Atoms Severally Contain At Least Four Ultimate Atoms Of Three Different
Kinds. Yet More Heterogeneous And Less Stable Still Are The Salts; Which
Present Us With Compound Atoms Each Made Up Of Five, Six, Seven, Eight,
Ten, Twelve, Or More Atoms, Of Three, If Not More, Kinds. Then There Are
The Hydrated Salts, Of A Yet Greater Heterogeneity, Which Undergo
Partial Decomposition At Much Lower Temperatures. After Them Come The
Further-Complicated Supersalts And Double Salts, Having A Stability
Again Decreased; And So Throughout. Without Entering Into Qualifications
For Which We Lack Space, We Believe No Chemist Will Deny It To Be A
General Law Of These Inorganic Combinations That, _Other Things Equal_,
The Stability Decreases As The Complexity Increases.
And Then When We Pass To The Compounds Of Organic Chemistry, We Find
This General Law Still Further Exemplified: We Find Much Greater
Complexity And Much Less Stability. An Atom Of Albumen, For Instance,
Consists Of 482 Ultimate Atoms Of Five Different Kinds. Fibrine, Still
More Intricate In Constitution, Contains In Each Atom, 298 Atoms Of
Carbon, 40 Of Nitrogen, 2 Of Sulphur, 228 Of Hydrogen, And 92 Of
Oxygen--In All, 660 Atoms; Or, More Strictly Speaking--Equivalents. And
These Two Substances Are So Unstable As To Decompose At Quite Ordinary
Temperatures; As That To Which The Outside Of A Joint Of Roast Meat Is
Exposed. Thus It Is Manifest That The Present Chemical Heterogeneity Of
The Earth's Surface Has Arisen By Degrees, As The Decrease Of Heat Has
Permitted; And That It Has Shown Itself In Three Forms--First, In The
Multiplication Of Chemical Compounds; Second, In The Greater Number Of
Different Elements Contained In The More Modern Of These Compounds: And
Third, In The Higher And More Varied Multiples In Which These More
Numerous Elements Combine.
To Say That This Advance In Chemical Heterogeneity Is Due To The One
Cause, Diminution Of The Earth's Temperature, Would Be To Say Too Much;
For It Is Clear That Aqueous And Atmospheric Agencies Have Been
Concerned; And, Further, That The Affinities Of The Elements Themselves
Are Implied. The Cause Has All Along Been A Composite One: The Cooling
Of The Earth Having Been Simply The Most General Of The Concurrent
Causes, Or Assemblage Of Conditions. And Here, Indeed, It May Be
Remarked That In The Several Classes Of Facts Already Dealt With
Part 2 Chapter 1 (Progress Its Law And Cause) Pg 75Excepting, Perhaps, The First), And Still More In Those With Which We
Shall Presently Deal, The Causes Are More Or Less Compound; As Indeed
Are Nearly All Causes With Which We Are Acquainted. Scarcely Any Change
Can With Logical Accuracy Be Wholly Ascribed To One Agency, To The
Neglect Of The Permanent Or Temporary Conditions Under Which Only This
Agency Produces The Change. But As It Does Not Materially Affect Our
Argument, We Prefer, For Simplicity's Sake, To Use Throughout The
Popular Mode Of Expression.
Perhaps It Will Be Further Objected, That To Assign Loss Of Heat As The
Cause Of Any Changes, Is To Attribute These Changes Not To A Force, But
To The Absence Of A Force. And This Is True. Strictly Speaking, The
Changes Should Be Attributed To Those Forces Which Come Into Action When
The Antagonist Force Is Withdrawn. But Though There Is An Inaccuracy In
Saying That The Freezing Of Water Is Due To The Loss Of Its Heat, No
Practical Error Arises From It; Nor Will A Parallel Laxity Of Expression
Vitiate Our Statements Respecting The Multiplication Of Effects. Indeed,
The Objection Serves But To Draw Attention To The Fact, That Not Only
Does The Exertion Of A Force Produce More Than One Change, But The
Withdrawal Of A Force Produces More Than One Change. And This Suggests
That Perhaps The Most Correct Statement Of Our General Principle Would
Be Its Most Abstract Statement--Every Change Is Followed By More Than
One Other Change.
Returning To The Thread Of Our Exposition, We Have Next To Trace Out, In
Organic Progress, This Same All-Pervading Principle. And Here, Where The
Evolution Of The Homogeneous Into The Heterogeneous Was First Observed,
The Production Of Many Changes By One Cause Is Least Easy To
Demonstrate. The Development Of A Seed Into A Plant, Or An Ovum Into An
Animal, Is So Gradual, While The Forces Which Determine It Are So
Involved, And At The Same Time So Unobtrusive, That It Is Difficult To
Detect The Multiplication Of Effects Which Is Elsewhere So Obvious.
Nevertheless, Guided By Indirect Evidence, We May Pretty Safely Reach
The Conclusion That Here Too The Law Holds.
Observe, First, How Numerous Are The Effects Which Any Marked Change
Works Upon An Adult Organism--A Human Being, For Instance. An Alarming
Sound Or Sigh, Besides The Impressions On The Organs Of Sense And The
Nerves, May Produce A Start, A Scream, A Distortion Of The Face, A
Trembling Consequent Upon A General Muscular Relaxation, A Burst Of
Perspiration, An Excited Action Of The Heart, A Rush Of Blood To The
Brain, Followed Possibly By Arrest Of The Heart's Action And By Syncope:
And If The System Be Feeble, An Indisposition With Its Long Train Of
Complicated Symptoms May Set In. Similarly In Cases Of Disease. A Minute
Portion Of The Small-Pox Virus Introduced Into The System, Will, In A
Severe Case, Cause, During The First Stage, Rigors, Heat Of Skin,
Accelerated Pulse, Furred Tongue, Loss Of Appetite, Thirst, Epigastric
Uneasiness, Vomiting, Headache, Pains In The Back And Limbs, Muscular
Weakness, Convulsions, Delirium, Etc.; In The Second Stage, Cutaneous
Eruption, Itching, Tingling, Sore Throat, Swelled Fauces, Salivation,
Cough, Hoarseness, Dyspnoea, Etc.; And In The Third Stage,
Oedematous Inflammations, Pneumonia, Pleurisy, Diarrhoea,
Inflammation Of The Brain, Ophthalmia, Erysipelas, Etc.; Each Of Which
Enumerated Symptoms Is Itself More Or Less Complex. Medicines, Special
Foods, Better Air, Might In Like Manner Be Instanced As Producing
Multiplied Results.
Now It Needs Only To Consider That The Many Changes Thus Wrought By One
Force Upon An Adult Organism, Will Be In Part Paralleled In An Embryo
Organism, To Understand How Here Also, The Evolution Of The Homogeneous
Into The Heterogeneous May Be Due To The Production Of Many Effects By
One Cause. The External Heat And Other Agencies Which Determine The
First Complications Of The Germ, May, By Acting Upon These, Superinduce
Further Complications; Upon These Still Higher And More Numerous Ones;
And So On Continually: Each Organ As It Is Developed Serving, By Its
Actions And Reactions Upon The Rest, To Initiate New Complexities. The
First Pulsations Of The Foetal Heart Must Simultaneously Aid The
Unfolding Of Every Part. The Growth Of Each Tissue, By Taking From The
Blood Special Proportions Of Elements, Must Modify The Constitution Of
The Blood; And So Must Modify The Nutrition Of All The Other Tissues.
The Heart's Action, Implying As It Does A Certain Waste, Necessitates An
Addition To The Blood Of Effete Matters, Which Must Influence The Rest
Of The System, And Perhaps, As Some Think, Cause The Formation Of
Excretory Organs. The Nervous Connections Established Among The Viscera
Must Further Multiply Their Mutual Influences: And So Continually.
Still Stronger Becomes The Probability Of This View When We Call To Mind
The Fact, That The Same Germ May Be Evolved Into Different Forms
According To Circumstances. Thus, During Its Earlier Stages, Every
Embryo Is Sexless--Becomes Either Male Or Female As The Balance Of
Forces Acting Upon It Determines. Again, It Is A Well-Established Fact
That The Larva Of A Working-Bee Will Develop Into A Queen-Bee, If,
Before It Is Too Late, Its Food Be Changed To That On Which The Larvæ Of
Queen-Bees Are Fed. Even More Remarkable Is The Case Of Certain Entozoa.
The Ovum Of A Tape-Worm, Getting Into Its Natural Habitat, The
Intestine, Unfolds Into The Well-Known Form Of Its Parent; But If
Carried, As It Frequently Is, Into Other Parts Of The System, It Becomes
A Sac-Like Creature, Called By Naturalists The _Echinococcus_--A
Creature So Extremely Different From The Tape-Worm In Aspect And
Structure, That Only After Careful Investigations Has It Been Proved To
Have The Same Origin. All Which Instances Imply That Each Advance In
Embryonic Complication Results From The Action Of Incident Forces Upon
The Complication Previously Existing.
Indeed, We May Find _À Priori_ Reason To Think That The Evolution
Proceeds After This Manner. For Since It Is Now Known That No Germ,
Animal Or Vegetable, Contains The Slightest Rudiment, Trace, Or
Indication Of The Future Organism--Now That The Microscope Has Shown Us
That The First Process Set Up In Every Fertilised Germ, Is A Process Of
Repeated Spontaneous Fissions Ending In The Production Of A Mass Of
Cells, Not One Of Which Exhibits Any Special Character: There Seems No
Alternative But To Suppose That The Partial Organisation At Any Moment
Subsisting In A Growing Embryo, Is Transformed By The Agencies Acting
Upon It Into The Succeeding Phase Of Organisation, And This Into The
Next, Until, Through Ever-Increasing Complexities, The Ultimate Form Is
Reached. Thus, Though The Subtilty Of The Forces And The Slowness Of The
Results, Prevent Us From _Directly_ Showing That The Stages Of
Increasing Heterogeneity Through Which Every Embryo Passes, Severally
Arise From The Production Of Many Changes By One Force, Yet,
_Indirectly_, We Have Strong Evidence That They Do So.
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