ABSTRACT
We have so far been discoursing about constitution’ with a certain glibness. But what do we really mean, or think we mean, by this word? To attempt to give a precise and comprehensive answer to this question would lead to the listing and discussion of a great variety of ideas that have been held upon the subject by many people. For the fact is that the concept of constitution, as relating to a living organism is an extremely complex abstraction. Even simple abstractions have a way of appearing to mean different things to different people. It will not surprise us then that the ‘constitution’ of an organism appears, on the record, to have nearly if not quite as many meanings, or shades of meaning, as the number of persons who have written about it. 16
