VITALITY. 79 



There is in living matter nothing which can be called a 

 mechanism, nothing in which structure can be discerned. 

 A little transparent colourless material is the seat of these 

 marvellous powers or properties by which the form, struc- 

 ture, and function of the tissues and organs of all living 

 things are determined. But this transparent material pos- 

 sesses a remarkable power of movement as has been 

 already referred to. See page 39. It may thus transport 

 itself long distances, and extend itself so as to get through 

 pores, holes, and canals too minute to be seen even with 

 the aid of very high powers. There are creatures of 

 exquisite tenuity which are capable of climbing through 

 fluids and probably through the air itself creatures which 

 climb without muscles, nerves or limbs creatures with 

 no mechanism, having no structure, capable when sus- 

 pended in the medium in which they live, of extend- 

 ing any one part of the pulpy matter of which they 

 consist beyond another part, and of causing the rest to 

 follow. As if each part willed to move and did so, or 

 moved in immediate response to mandates operating upon 

 it from a distance, governed by some undiscovered, and at 

 present unimagined laws, creatures which multiply by sepa- 

 rating into two or more parts without loss of substance, or 

 capacity, or power. It would seem that each part pos- 

 sessed equal powers with the whole, for the smallest particle 

 detached may soon grow into a body like the original mass 

 in every respect ; and the process may be repeated infinitely 

 without any loss or diminution in capacity or power. It 

 may be asked if there is anything approaching this oc- 

 curring within the range of physics or chemistry. 



