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| AYURVEDA |
Structure of Atoms
That there are no instances of simple entities in the universe may require a few words of explanation. If we start with a lump of matter, we find that it is divisible into molecules existing together in different degrees of cohesion and dispersion which determine the existence of solids, liquids and gases. These further determine along with other conditions the state of its existence as a solution, mixture, emulsion or colloid. The molecular structure of an object not only determines its ordinary physical conditions but is associated also with various physical properties of colour, texture, taste and the like and also with certain kinds of physiological characters. The molecule itself has in it a molecular structure of atoms of the same element or of diverse elements. Even when the atoms are of the same element, the molecular structure effects a great change in physical characters and possibly also in chemical characters. Diamond and charcoal may be cited as an instance. In the case of an inter-molecular structure of atoms of diverse elements, even when we have the same number of atoms of the diverse elements, the mere difference in their structure makes an enormous difference in the physical and chemical characteristics of the two molecules. Both organic and inorganic chemistry abound in instances of the formation of new compounds by such inter-molecular rearrangement. If we descend to the atoms, we find that they have a definite system of structure of protons-electrons arrangement. The exact nature of this arrangement is not definitely known, though it has been supposed with a fair amount of assurance that it consists of concentric ellipses or circles, the complexity of which increases as we ascend from one group of elements to another in accordance with the Periodic Classification of Mendeleeff and Lothar Meyer. We know that the simple addition of one or two electrons in the outer ring of the atom of an element may result in the production of such intensely different chemical substances as carbon and oxygen. We know also that at least in some instances it has been possible to degenerate one element into another merely by the repulsion of one or two electrons from the outer ring of electrons. Electron itself, is identified with an electric charge, though it has a definite volume and a definite weight. Light is regarded as electronic and as predicted by Einstein it has been found to suffer from the influence of gravitation. Since electrons have weight, it may be supposed that they also have a structure and an internal organization, and we are on the threshold of new discoveries and theories in which they are regarded as crossing points of millions of sub-ether waves. The nature of these sub-ether waves is not definitely known and it is possible that they represent some indefinitely known structure of space. That space has a structure in one of the fundamental assumptions of Einsteinian Theory of Relativity. From where comes the structure of space may e left to the guess work of metaphysical speculation. Coming to the domain of life we find that even the microscopic and the ultra-microscopic bacteria reveal in them the presence of chromatin granules which may be regarded as homfologous in nature to the nucleus of higher organisms. It has been found that bacillary bodies contain within them deeply staining structures. These structures show a preponderance of slender rods which are cylindrical with rounded ends. The development of a bacterial life shows separation, rearrangement and growth of these internal structures in a manner homologous with the growth on the cell bodies of higher animals. The fact that the cellular bodies of higher animals contain an internal specialised structure and different kinds of internal apparatus, is too well known to need any elaboration here. Apart from the function of the chromatins and the chromosomes. I may refer here only to The Golgi apparatus. The Golgi apparatus is a centre of synthetic processes. It is engaged primarily in the production of secretory granules, which are excretory in nature. These products are of a temporary character such as mucous, serous, lipoid granules, yolk, acrosomes, Nissl’s granules, etc. The apparatus undergoes hypertrophy during the process and is not transformed into the various products. We need not enter into further details, but it will be evident from what has been said above that even in the crudest beginning of life we have definite proof of complex structures associated with complex functions. It can also be proved that the process going on inside the **coll-life consists not only of localized actions at particular points but of a totalized action of the entire structural area, which is much more than merely additive. It is thus evident that both in the inorganic and in the organic sphere of plant and animal life we have to deal with structured organizations and sub-organizations, which are constantly in an evolving process both in their specific interests and in the interest of other organizations. Their actions are both of a localized nature and aloof the nature of a totalized whole transcending the limits of a localized action. The localized actions are actions of sub-organizations which may be taken successively to any of its minus powers. The actions as a whole is the action of the sub-organizations towards the self-expression of the successive organizations of which the successive sub-organizations are constituents.
Catalytic Agent, a Co-existent Cause
Causal operation cannot always be interpreted as involving definite functioning of each of the constituent elements, which may be interpreted as the extortion of force or as offering positive contributions in the parallel plane with the contributions of the other constituent elements. Thus in the case of a catalyst we find that a catalytic agent may in most cases excite chemical action in other compounds simply by its very presence in a measure quite incommensurable with the relative proportions of those compounds and without undergoing observable change in itself. Thus sucrose will act on at least two hundred thousand times its weight while rennin of the gastric juice will clot at least four hundred thousand times its weight of casein, the coagulable protein of milk. The very presence of the catalytic agent is the cause of the chemical change in the sucrose of the milk, though we are not aware of any definite contribution on the part of the catalytic agent in the same plane with the contributing actions of the constituents of sucrose and milk. No contribution of any definite force can be conceived as the catalytic agent itself remains unchanged, though only by its presence four hundred thousand times its weight of casein undergoes a change. Again a causal operation would not necessarily always be a prior event to the effect as may be excepted from Hume’s definition of cause as an invariable antecedent. When a planet approaches its motion is accelerated. The cause of the acceleration is its specific position in the gravitational field which can be regarded only as a coexistent event, but not a prior one. Again from what has been said above it will be apparent that no cause can be unconditional. This view will be further apparent when we consider that the cause may also be defined as an assemblage of conditions, the remote conditions of which may sometimes be pressed backwards in an infinite regression. Thus we see that all the so-called defining characteristics of the caused concept have only a methodological interest. Causal operation is a process of self-emergence and self-expression or other-emergence and other-expression of organized wholes.
Inorganic Organizations
If we consider the nature of organizations in the non-living and the living world, we find that though their general nature is the same, yet there are remarkable differences in the specific modes of their operation. The behaviour of inorganic organizations is dominated by the law of inertia. The laws of force and their quantitative and qualitative directions are fixed. There is self-maintenance and self-expression, but there is no growth. There is aggregation and accretion, but no production. One atom of copper, one atom of sulphur and four atoms of oxygen produce the integral combinations of a copper-sulphate molecule. Two atoms of hydrogen, one atom of sulphur and four atoms of oxygen produce a molecule of sulphuric acid. There are processes inside the molecules of copper-sulphate and of sulphuric acid by which they hold themselves in status quo and which regulate their behaviour with reference to their environment and other substances contained within it. But no processes inside a molecule try to generate further molecules from it. A slight exception is perceived in the formation of crystals. We find that the electrical energies associated with the poles of a crystal help the formation of synchronously shaped crystals from a mother-solution. Here though a crystal supports the formation of other crystals, these crystals are not produced from a disintegration of one crystal through the operation of the materials absorbed within it. The contribution of a crystal towards the formation of its sister-crystals is through the adhesive and formative forces exerted in the peripheral regions of the crystal. As such, it is entirely different from the process of cell-division which secures the history of production and growth in the living world.
Living and the Non-living
The chief characteristics in which the living differs from the non-living may briefly be summarized as follows:
I. Persistence of a complex specific metabolism (comprising metabolism of protein, individuality of metabolism and persistence in spite of change) and the corresponding specific organization.
II. Capacity of growth, reproduction and development
III. Effective behaviour, registration of experience and variability.
The Reaction to Environment
It was sometimes held, particularly in association with the theory of vitalism, that the environment of an organism, physical or chemical, must be regarded as existing outside of it, that it may be explained independently according to the well-known physical and chemical principles that even within the organism the same physical and chemical conceptions may be applied except in so far as there is interference by a peculiar influence within the organism by which the self-maintenance of the organism as a specific whole could be explained. We now know that the conception of life embraces the environment of an organism as well as what is within its body. The conception of life implies that the relations of the parts and the environment of an organism are such that a normal and specific structure is actively maintained. Thus the famous biologist, Dr. Haldano says: “The environment is expressed in the structure of each part of the organism and conversely. When, moreover, we examine what appears to us as organic structure and the structure of organic environment closely, we find that it is the expression of continuous activity so co-ordinated that the structure is maintained. We cannot separate organic from environmental structure, any more than we can separate the action of the environment from the reaction of the organism. Moreover, the spatial relations of the parts do not imply their separate existence from one another, since we cannot define them as existing separately when their very existence expresses co-ordination with one another. The co-ordination extends over surrounding environment, and the spatial relations of parts and environment express unity, not separation. They also cannot be described as existing within space: for the co-ordination embodies to them is not limited to a certain position in space, but extends indefinitely beyond any spatial position which we might attempt to assign to it.”
[*The Philosophical Basis of Biology. Pp. 14-15]
Biological and Physico-chemical Events
Even the Darwinian theory of hereditary transmission implies the fact that life is a unity and it constantly maintains and reproduces itself. Such a self-maintenance is consonant with variation involving adaptation of an organism as regard structure and activities to new circumstances. Structure expresses the maintenance of function and function expresses the maintenance of structure, and a physico-chemical environment cannot be separated from the living organism, as if the former was the content and the latter the container. The environment and the living whole together form one whole, one organization. Morphology cannot be separated from physiology and no physico-chemical theories can explain the self-maintaining and reproductive nature of life. The science of life is an exact science, the concepts of which are original and are not in any applications of or deductions from physico-chemical concepts. The time when it was thought that physico-chemical concepts could explain the concept of life is fast away and we have indication of a new era when explanation of physical concepts will be attempted on the analogy of biology. Thus hard-boiled scientist like Whitehead says that science is taking on a new aspect which is neither purely physical nor purely biological. It is becoming the study of organisms. Biological is the study of larger organisms whereas physics is the study of the smaller organisms. [*Science in the Modern World. Chap. VI.] According to him an event may be taken as the ultimate unit of natural occurrence and it contains within it two aspects, an aspect of self-maintenance and an aspect in which it holds itself in unison with the self-maintenance of other events. An event corresponds to two patterns, namely, the pattern of aspects of other events which it grasps into its own unity and the own aspect which other events severally grasp into their unities. There is thus an intrinsic and an extrinsic reality of an event, namely, the event in its own prehension and the event as in the prehension of other events. The ordinary scientific ideas of transmission and continuity are details concerning the empirically observed characters of these patterns through out space and time. Considered from these points of view, the biological and the physico-chemical events are in one sense alike and on that account we get a peculiar, insight into the nature of physico-chemical events when we look at them from the point of view of biology. The idea of self-expression in the interest of other expressions is most prominent in biological studies. The idea of the universe as an interrelated organization in the interests of one another receives an important justification from a biological outlook. We have seen so far that biological organizations belong to an order different from physico chemical organizations. Yet they are conterminous with the physico-chemical organizations which form their environment. Plants seize the radiant energy of the sun and utilize it in building the compounds they use. Animals digest them to build their own. The complex activities of the animals have three powerful groups of governors, the ferments, the endocrine secretions and the vitamins, all chemical compounds and all acting chemically. All the processes of life are governed by the same quantitative laws that have been proved to hold for non-living matter. Life can neither create energy or matter nor cause their disappearance. The two great laws of physics and chemistry are conservation of matter and conservation of energy and all living processes conform rigidly to these laws. An organism carrying on an active metabolism accounts for all matter taken within itself during a measured period of time, so that the difference in weight between the matter ingested and that excreted is exactly balanced by a gain (or loss) of weight by the organism itself. So the total intake of energy from the potential energy of the food ingested and actual energy acquired from food hotter than the organism is equal to the total energy output consisting of (a) radiation, conduction and convection, and (b) actual and potential heat lost with the excreta and the work done by the organism. Many of the chemical compounds and elements are directly produced and stored up by the endocrine glands. Thus the thyroid stores up iodine and forms definite iodine compounds. The para-thyroid glands secrete compounds which assist in the control of calcium metabolism. The pancreas secretes compounds which help the metabolism of glucose and so on. Many other acids and salts are prepared in the body by a mechanism entirely different from that in which they may be prepared outside the body. Many of the compounds prepared in the body are such that we have no indication as to how they are produced inside the body by the chemical processes that are known to us. Some of compounds which may be produced outside the body by the application of considerable heat and various chemical reagents are produced in the body in a very simple manner under entirely different conditions. It will thus be seen that though ultimately the constituents of our body are homogeneous with the radiant energy of the sun or the electrical conditions of space indicated thereby, our organism is an organization of an entirely different nature from all other non-organic organizations. It uses non-organic methods and assimilates and transforms non-organic matter and energy for its own interest in its own peculiar way. Whatever is taken inside the body is made to enter into the specific processes of the organism and to obey the laws of the organism which are different and yet consonant with the loss of non-organic nature. When an organism fails to do so in any respect we have diseases. Thus the larger protein-molecules do not under normal condition reach the circulation, but when by an chance they do reach the circulation they act toxically producing certain reactions which may reveal themselves by definite symptoms. The cells of the organism then form and excrete compounds which can unite with them and detoxicate them and they are called anti-bodies of anti-gens.
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