The Organism as a Whole, from a Physicochemical Viewpoint

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Jacques Loeb. The Organism as a Whole, from a Physicochemical Viewpoint

The Organism as a Whole, from a Physicochemical Viewpoint

Table of Contents

The Organism as a Whole

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

CHAPTER II

THE SPECIFIC DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LIVING AND DEAD MATTER AND THE QUESTION OF THE ORIGIN OF LIFE

CHAPTER III

THE CHEMICAL BASIS OF GENUS AND SPECIES

I. The Incompatibility of Species not closely Related

II. The Chemical Basis of Genus and Species and of Species Specificity

CHAPTER IV

SPECIFICITY IN FERTILIZATION

CHAPTER V

ARTIFICIAL PARTHENOGENESIS

CHAPTER VI

DETERMINISM IN THE FORMATION OF AN ORGANISM FROM AN EGG

CHAPTER VII

REGENERATION

CHAPTER VIII

DETERMINATION OF SEX, SECONDARY SEXUAL CHARACTERS, AND SEXUAL INSTINCTS

I. The Cytological Basis of Sex Determina­tion

II. The Physiological Basis of Sex Determina­tion

CHAPTER IX

MENDELIAN HEREDITY AND ITS MECHANISM200

I

II

CHAPTER X

ANIMAL INSTINCTS AND TROPISMS217

CHAPTER XI

THE INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT

CHAPTER XII

ADAPTATION TO ENVIRONMENT

CHAPTER XIII

EVOLUTION

CHAPTER XIV

DEATH AND DISSOLUTION OF THE ORGANISM

INDEX

Putnam’s Science Series

FOOTNOTES:

Отрывок из книги

Jacques Loeb

Published by Good Press, 2019

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In 1883 the small island of Krakatau was destroyed by the most violent volcanic erup­tion on record. A visit to the islands two months after the erup­tion showed that “the three islands were covered with pumice and layers of ash reaching on an average a thickness of thirty metres and frequently sixty metres.”13 Of course all life on the islands was extinct. When Treub in 1886 first visited the island, he found that blue-green algæ were the first colonists on the pumice and on the exposed blocks of rock in the ravines on the mountain slopes. Investiga­tions made during subsequent expedi­tions demonstrated the associa­tion of diatoms and bacteria. All of these were probably carried by the wind. The algæ referred to were according to Euler of the nostoc type. Nostoc does not require sugar, since it can produce that compound from the CO2 of the air by the activity of its chlorophyll. This organism possesses also the power of assimilating the free nitrogen of the air. From these observa­tions and because the Nostocaceæ generally appear as the first settlers on sand the conclusion has been drawn that they or the group of Schizophyceæ to which they belong formed the first settlers of our planet.14 This conclusion is not quite safe since in the settlement of Krakatau as well as in the first colonizing of sand areas the nature of the first settler is determined chiefly by the carrying power of wind (or waves and birds).

We may now return from this digression to the real object of our discussion, namely that the nutritive solu­tions of organisms must be very dilute and consist of the split products of the complicated compounds of which the organisms consist. The examples given sufficiently illustrate this statement.

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