The Rudolf Steiner Archive

12. Structure and Secretion of the Human Organism

[ 1 ] The human body, like other organisms, is formed from a semi-liquid state. However, the supply of aeriform substances is always necessary for its formation. The most important of these is oxygen, which is supplied by respiration.

[ 2 ] First consider a solid component, e.g. a bone structure. It is separated from the semi-liquid. The ego organization is active in this separation. Anyone who follows the development of the bone system can see this for themselves. It develops to the extent that the human being acquires his human form, the expression of the ego organization, through the embryonic and childhood period. The protein transformation that underlies this process first separates the (astral and etheric) foreign bodies from the protein substance; the protein passes through the state of the inorganic; it must become liquid in the process. In this state it is seized by the I-organization, which is active in warmth, and supplied to its own human etheric body It becomes human protein It still has a long way to go before it is transformed into bone substance.

[ 3 ] After its transformation into human protein, it needs to be made ready for the absorption and transformation of carbonic acid and phosphoric acid lime, etc.. For this it must undergo an intermediate stage. It must come under the influence of the absorption of air. This carries the transformation products of the carbohydrates into the protein. This produces substances that can provide the basis for the individual organ formations. We are not dealing here with finished organ substances, not with liver or bone substance, for example, but with a more general substance from which all the individual organs of the body can be formed. The ego organization is active in the formation of the finished organ forms. The astral body is active in the marked, as yet undifferentiated organ substance. In animals, this astral body also takes upon itself the finished organ formations; in humans, the activity of the astral body and thus the animal nature remains only as the general foundation of the ego organization. The animal development does not come to an end in man; it is interrupted on its way and the human is, as it were, superimposed on it through the ego organization.

[ 4 ] This ego-organization lives entirely in states of warmth. It extracts the individual organs from the general astral entity. In doing so, it works on the general substance brought about by the astral in such a way that it either increases or decreases the state of warmth of a preparing organ.

[ 5 ] If it decreases it, inorganic substances enter the substance in a hardening process, and the basis for bone formation is provided. Salt substances are absorbed.

[ 6 ] If it increases, organs are formed whose activity consists in dissolving the organic, in transforming it into liquid or airy substances.

[ 7 ] Suppose now that the ego organization does not find so much heat developed in the organism that the increase in the state of heat for the organs for which it is necessary can take place to a sufficient degree. As a result, organs whose activity should take place in the direction of dissolution become hardened. They receive the tendency as pathological, which is healthy in the bones.

[ 8 ] Now the bone, when it is formed by the ego organization, is an organ that is released by it from its domain. It enters a state in which it is no longer internally seized by the ego organization, but only externally. It is taken out of the area of growth and organization and still serves the ego organization mechanically in the execution of bodily movements. Only a remnant of inner activity of the ego organization permeates it throughout its entire life, because it must remain an organizational element within the organism and must not fall out of life.

[ 9 ] The organs which, for the reason stated, can pass over into a bone-like formative activity are the veins. Calcification (sclerosis) then occurs in them. The ego organization is to a certain extent driven out of these organ systems.

[ 10 ] The opposite case occurs when the ego organization does not meet the necessary reduction of the heat state for the bone area. Then the bones become similar to organs that develop a dissolving activity. Due to the lack of hardening, they are then unable to provide a basis for salt incorporation. Thus the final unfolding of the bone formations, which belongs to the area of the ego organization, does not take place. The astral activity is not stopped at the right point on its path. Tendencies to malformation of form must occur; for the healthy formation of form can only take place in the realm of the ego organization.

[ 11 ] We are dealing with the rachitic diseases. From all this we can see how the human organs are related to their activities. The bone is formed in the area of the ego organization. When its formation is complete, it serves this ego organization, which from then on no longer forms it, but uses it for arbitrary movements. It is the same with what arises in the realm of the astral organization. Undifferentiated substances and forces are formed there. These appear everywhere in the body as the basis of the differentiated organ formations. The astral activity leads them to a certain stage; then it uses them. The entire human organism is permeated by the semi-liquid, in which astrally oriented activity prevails.

[ 12 ] This activity expresses itself in secretions that find their use in the formation of the organism according to the direction of its higher limbs. Such a directed secretion can be seen in the glandular products that play their role in the economy of the organism's activity. In addition to these secretions towards the inside of the organism, there are those which are actual secretions towards the outside. One is mistaken if one sees in these nothing more than that which the organism cannot use from the food substances it has absorbed and therefore throws out. The important thing is not that the organism secretes substances to the outside, but that it carries out the activities that lead to the excretions. There is something in the performance of these activities that the organism needs for its existence. This activity is just as necessary as that which absorbs substances into the organism or deposits them in it. For the essence of organic activity lies in the healthy relationship between the two activities.

[ 13 ] So the result of the astrally oriented activity appears outwardly in the excretions And if substances are stored in the excretions that are driven to the inorganic, then the ego organization also lives in them And this life of the ego organization is even of very special importance For the power that is used on such excretions creates, as it were, a counter-pressure inwardly. And this is necessary for the healthy existence of the organism. The uric acid that is excreted through the urine, as such an inward counter-pressure, creates the right inclination of the organism for sleep. Too little uric acid in the urine and too much in the blood produces such a short sleep that it is not sufficient for the health of the organism.