332 Dr Eschrlcht's Inquiries concerning 



appears to us more admissible in the case of animals with a 

 less complicated than in those of a more complicated struc- 

 ture, this may be attributed to ourselves. The difficulty is 

 not in the complication of the structure, but in the harmony 

 of the structure according with the wants of life ; and this 

 harmony may exist as well in a less complicated as in the 

 more complicated organization, although, to our eyes, it is 

 more conspicuous in the latter. Our inquiry must therefore 

 rest upon the question, Whether such harmony of structure 

 may be supposed to arise of itself? 



Sect. 3. The Analogy between the Formation of Living 

 Bodies and Crystallization refuted, — The first point to be at- 

 tended to here is, that the recently described phenomena in 

 generation, and the formation of eggs, are in no degree to 

 be referred to any species of crystallization. For I think it 

 might be proved that there exists no analogy whatever between 

 the formation of living bodies and crystallization ; nay, not 

 even between what are called organic and inorganic forms. 

 Such an analogy is very commonly admitted without hesitation. 

 ''Organic forms," it is said, "are more round, more soft; in- 

 organic more angular, more sharp ; even in the human body, we 

 find the teeth, as less organic, sharper and more angular," &;c. 

 These statements, I hold, rest on a very flimsy basis. Are the 

 teeth more angular and sharp simply because they are less or- 

 ganic? Howdid they obtain this shape? They were formed upon 

 a soft pulp, having nerves and bloodvessels, and this pulp had 

 precisely the shape which the teeth assumed. Had this highly 

 organized pulp been round as a globe, the teeth would have 

 become so too, — but nature would not have it so ; it was for 

 the benefit of the living body that they should be sharp and 

 angular as well as hard, and for that, and no other reason, they 

 received their form. Can it be otherwise with the other parts 

 of living bodies ? Assuredly not. The real forms of organic 

 matter, analogous to the forms of inorganic substances, are 

 perhaps as angular and as like crystals as any of the latter. 

 Thus sugar, uric acid, stearine, &c., have all as beautiful crys- 

 tals when spontaneously formed by their chemical affinities, 

 as we find in minerals and salts. But when organic matter 

 is formed in living bodies, it is forced to take the form which 



