the Origin of Intestinal Worms, 333 



the living power imposes on it, according to the use for which 

 it is designed ; this it is forced to assume in opposition to its 

 own formative power, just as steel and iron are forced to take 

 the forms into which they are moulded by human art, in op- 

 position to the forms of their own formative power. And yet 

 the forms induced by human art comprehend merely the ex- 

 ternal shape ; and, internally, the proper minute crystallized 

 forms of the metal may be detected by minute examination. 

 In the formation of living bodies this is not the case. If, for 

 instance, you take the most minute slice of a tooth or a bone, 

 and examine it with the greatest possible degree of microsco- 

 pical amplification, you must not expect to find crystals of 

 phosphate of lime. No, you will find even there forms con- 

 forming to the uses of the body. We may hope to obtain am- 

 plifying powers to which our present ones will be as simple 

 lenses when compared with the best microscope ; but to hope 

 for the discovery of a microscope which shall reach to the end 

 and purpose of the provident care of the creating power in 

 the living body, would be to expect the discovery of a tele- 

 scope which should reach to the extreme limit of the world. 

 But this mode of reasoning will not meet with the approbation 

 of the electro-galvanic schools. 



Sect. 4. The Analogy between the supposed EquivocalGenera' 

 tio7i and Generation refuted. — To these schnols it will appe^ar a 

 mere repetition of ancient and obsolete theories, about 7iisus 

 formativus^ vital powers^ and so on. But if those erred who 

 regarded the vital powers as a Deus ex machina^ whom they 

 might at any time invoke, instead of searching into the reason 

 of the phenomena in living bodies, surely, on the other hand, 

 the modern schools are just as wide of the mark. In my Da- 

 nish Manual of Physiology, I have attempted to illustrate the 

 relation of these opposing schools, in a tale to which I may 

 here allude. Suppose the inhabitants of an island altogether 

 ignorant of navigation, what would be their reasonings upon 

 the approach of a ship to their shore \ Some might exclaim, 

 ** It is a sorcerer, who is out of the reach of wind or tide ! 

 "What a difference between his movements and those of our 

 floating barks } Now he was close to the fatal reef, but how sud- 

 denly he turned round and escaped ! '* To this another might 



VOL. XXXI. NO. LXII. OCTOBER 1841. Y 



