238 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 



kingdom, though most of us can remember the time when they 

 were universally regarded as animals. But if we compare the 

 rolling motion of the Volvocina? or the gliding of a Diatom with 

 the ever-changing form and direction in the Amoeba, it will be seen 

 at a glance that the absence of volition in the one and its presence 

 in the other, at once sets up a line of demarcation between even 

 the motion of the lowest animals and lowest plants. 



And further, we have the difference that plants consume inor- 

 ganic matter, and are nourished from without, animals consume 

 organic, and are nourished from within. 



When we look more closely into the structure of organic beings 

 the most striking feature presented to us is the common plan on 

 which everything is constructed, yet each having its organs modi- 

 fied or adapted to the functions they have to perform. Taking the 

 lowest forms of vegetable life, we find that they are nothing but a 

 simple cell, yet this cell is capable of absorbing nutriment, of re- 

 producing its kind, and is in all respects perfect, and at one period 

 of its existence the massive oak, the towering palm, the lowly prim- 

 rose were nothing more. So again with the animal cell. This may 

 bound the whole existence of the individual, or it may become so 

 altered by multiplication, by growth of tissues, and differentiation 

 of parts, that even proud man is attained ; for he, too, at one period 

 of his existence, was nothing but a simple cell. 



The next point we shall notice will be the subservience of all the 

 functions of life to the final one of reproduction ; throughout all 

 organic creation we find that very early a sexual distinction is set 

 up, and a sperm cell and germ cell under some form or other re- 

 sults, and these having fulfilled their office the individual dissemi- 

 nates its offspring, and then in countless instances ceases to exist, 

 or it may live on for several repetitions of the process, but these, 

 sooner or later, must terminate with the life of the parent. 



We will now glance at the principal groups which may profitably 

 be made the subject of observation. Commencing with the vege- 

 table kingdom, we find the structural development of plants is most 

 important, and the existence of the plant as an individual is con- 

 stituted thereby. All the lowest plants consist of cells and repeti- 

 tions of them, and by their modifications variations of structure are 

 produced ; as we progress to higher orders a differentiation of 

 tissues takes place, and we have the pitted and spiral vessels, 

 woody fibre, &c, added to the other elements. 



