Man not a machine : a study of the finalistic aspects of life / by Eugene Rignano.

  • Rignano, Eugenio, 1870-1930.
Date:
1926
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Man not a machine : a study of the finalistic aspects of life / by Eugene Rignano. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    that in the living substance there is “ some specific synthetic mechanism ” which is specifically different for the different cells of the various tissues. But this ‘ synthetic mechanism’, the function of which is not only to synthesize complex compounds, but to reconstitute precisely those com- pounds which were destroyed in the disassimilating phase immediately pre- ceding, must evidently depend on the specificity and the modalities of this same disintegrating process. As the disassimilating process changes with different external stimuli, and as a consequent change takes place in the quality of the living substance des- troyed and requiring replacement, the synthesizing mechanism must also change correspondingly, so as to re- construct exactly and exclusively what has been destroyed. The synthesizing mechanism, in other words, must bear the same relation to the disintegrating process as a medal to its die. When the die changes,