pour une substance dont pourtant tous les autres caractères sont les mêmes. C'est ce qui fait dire que leur composition chimique n'est pas définie, n'est pas déterminée, parceque leur analyse élémentaire ne donne pas un poids de ces différents éléments fixe et constamment le même, comme le sont les sulfates, l'urée, le sucre," &c. Moreover, the nerve-tissue contains phosphorus as a constituent, but the quantity of this phosphorus varies, and yet the tissue remains nerve-tissue whether the phosphorus be more or less ; or any other tissue may lose some of its water without losing its properties.
Gathering up these various threads into one formula, we may by it express the second Static Law of Organized Substances :
LAW II. The presence of higher multiples is accompanied by an indefinite composition in lieu of a definite composition, and by a characteristic immediate synthesis of the elements.
Before passing to the third and final stage, it will be useful to alter the ordinary classification of matter " Organic and Inorganic," for one which I propose, with great hopes of its being found suggestive, viz. :
Matter may be considered under three aspects: 1st. Non-organized; 2nd. Organizable, or partly organized;
3rd. Organized. For these three conditions I propose the names of Anorganic, Merorganic, and Teleorganic.
I. Anorganic matter is that usually termed inorganic —water, salts, minerals, &c.
II. Merorganic matter is matter in an intermediate state, wherein it either wants some addition, to become organized, or else (as in organic products) has lost some of the elements it had when organized. Thus, the blastema from which cells are formed is the highest condition of merorganic matter—it is just on the eve of becoming vital. So also the cells which have lost their vitality in the very fulfilment of their function are all merorganic.
III. Teleorganic matter is matter in that condition in which the cell, fully equipped, can, and does, perform its function.
From this classification it appears that the passage from the inorganic to the organic does not take place directly ; but the anorganic passes into the merorganic, and the merorganic into the organic. What is the indispensable condition of this final passage ? What is it which makes the merorganic substance vital ?
We have already considered organic substances under their two preliminary aspects of elementary composition and synthesis (LAWS I. and II.) ; and, if I have at all succeeded in the exposition, it will not be difficult to gain a clear, firm conception of the third and final process—that, namely, of Form. For Organic matter is differentiated from Inorganic as much by its Form as by its elementary structure.
Before explaining my own view, it will be well to cast a glance at the evidence furnished by crystals :
Crystallization has always seemed to conceal the first beginnings of the phase named Organic, because in crystals we first meet with definite constituent forms, i. e., with Form as a necessary and inseparable condition of their existence as crystals. Inorganic matter can, we know, assume indifferently any shape without thereby losing its properties. But in a crystal the Form is essential—the solution which will become crystallized by even so slight a disturbance of its equilibrium as the touch of a feather, is not yet crystal; it only becomes a crystal when its molecules assume a determinate form.
But there are many obvious and some fundamental distinctions between the highest crystal and the lowest example of organic life, which prevent our accepting crystallization as the transition phase between the inorganic and the organic. Of these distinctions it is enough to name the most striking, viz., the organic cell undergoes a series of transformations, and reproduces itself; the crystal undergoes no transformations, and never reproduces.
It is true that a French chemist, M. Brame, has quite recently made a wonderful discovery, which—if it be established—shows that previous to crystallization certain bodies assume an embryonic cellular condition, the outgrowth and