394 PROCEEDINGS OP THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



always remain C, H, N, and 0, no matter under what forms or re- 

 lations they may be disguised : the various modes of being not in the 

 least changing the fact of their existence. For instance, they say, the 

 transition from one kind of animate being to another kind is only a 

 graduated change in the mode of existence, or of the manner of an out- 

 ward expression of the relations of the component elements of the or- 

 ganism ; certainly not an actual metamorphosis of the nature of these 

 elements. To this assertion there may not possibly be any objection ; 

 but if the same explanation were urged for the transition to the Monad 

 from the infinitesimally small, vibrating, inorganic corpuscle of the 

 " Brownian motion," we have not come to that state of knowledge of 

 the forces of nature to so readily accept it as in the former case. Still 

 the growing tendency, among the philosophical chemists, to merge the 

 vital and the inorganic forces into one, would seem to be inevitably 

 preparing us to regard such a transition as identical in kind with that 

 which obtains among the undoubtedly organized bodies, whether ani- 

 mals or plants. 



In this state of hesitancy to step across the vanishing line of demar- 

 cation, between the animate and the inanimate, we can at least safely 

 venture to give, in general terms, an expression of the relations of the 

 three forms of existence. We may say that it is the mode of existence 

 which constitutes the difference between the inorganic and the organic 

 bodies, or between the two forms of organic life, viz. animals and 

 plants. So that every fact enunciated in regard to an animal or plant 

 is the record of a symbol of one of the methods of existence, or of the 

 nature of the influences which enter into the life of the being. 



From this point of view the study of these insignificants rises to the 

 rank of the highest philosophical inquiry, and the minute wonders of 

 the " microscopist " become the agents in the pursuit after the knowl- 

 edge of the ways of the Infinite, which one could hardly have the 

 temerity to smile at. 



These thoughts have been suggested by the results of some investi- 

 gations into the thus far doubtful animal nature of the Cilio-fiagellate 

 Infusoria, as the Peridiniens and their congeners are designated by 

 Claparede in his, conjointly with Lachman, most recent publications 

 upon the Infusoria.* 



=* Claparede and Lachman, l^tude sur les Infusoires et les Rhizopodes, Mem. de 

 Tins. Genevois, Tomes V., VI., VII., 1858 - 1861. 



