68 PROTOPLASM. 



two different classes or kinds of actions. The truth is physics 

 and chemistry have never advanced one step in the direc- 

 tions indicated. Great things have been done, but in 

 altogether different lines of enquiry. Strange as it may 

 seem many undoubtedly high authorities have for years past 

 failed to distinguish between the act of construction in the 

 case of a machine or an organism, and the work performed 

 by it after its construction is complete. They have failed to 

 recognize any difference between formation and action, and 

 have forgotten that before an organ can act or perform its 

 function, it must be formed, and that its function and mode 

 of action are in great measure determined by the changes 

 which occurred during its formation. 



The power or force which is concerned in the formation 

 of an organ endowed with the most exquisite faculties is 

 supposed to be of the same essential nature as that which 

 causes certain kinds of matter to assume a definite cry- 

 stalline form. The formation of organs and structures 

 designed for the fulfilment of definite purposes which must 

 have been foreseen, as it were, from the earliest period of 

 development, is supposed to result from nothing more than 

 the action and reaction of the properties and forces of the 

 elements of matter concerned, and the external conditions 

 to which it is exposed. But it must be borne in mind that 

 temporary structures are first produced which are useless in 

 themselves and only serve as a provisional basis for the 

 development of the masses of germinal matter from which 

 permanent structure is to be evolved. 



