SUMMARY OF PART II 281 



tiny portions of matter, gelatinous in the case of animals and muci- 

 laginous in the case of plants, transforming these portions of matter 

 into cellular tissue, filling them with visible fluids which develop within 

 them, and setting up in them various movements, dissipations, restora- 

 tions and alterations by means of the exciting cause provided by the 

 environment ; 



6. That the laws which control the various transformations in bodies, 

 of whatever nature they may be, are everywhere the same ; but that 

 these laws in living bodies work results altogether opposite to those 

 achieved in crude or inorganic bodies, because in the former they find 

 an order and state of things which give them the power to produce all 

 the phenomena of life, while in the latter they find a very different 

 state of things and produce very different effects : so that it is not 

 true that nature has special laws for living bodies, opposite to those 

 which control the transformations observed in lifeless bodies ; 



7. That all living bodies of both kingdoms and all classes have 

 certain faculties in common ; these are the property of the general 

 organisation of such bodies, and of the life which they contain ; hence 

 these faculties, common to all living things, need no special organ for 

 their existence ; 



8. That in addition to the faculties common to all living bodies, 

 some of these bodies, especially among animals, have faculties peculiar 

 to themselves and not found among the rest ; but these special faculties 

 are in every case the product of a special organ or system of organs, 

 80 that no animal without that organ or system of organs can possibly 

 possess the faculty which it confers on those that have it ; ^ 



9. Lastly, that the death of every living body is a natural pheno- 

 menon, which necessarily results from the presence of life and is brought 

 about by natural causes, unless some accidental cause intervenes first ; 

 this phenomenon is nothing else than the complete cessation of vital 

 movements, resulting from some disturbance in the order and state of 

 things necessary for the performance of these movements ; in animals 

 with highly complex organisations, the principal systems of organs 

 possess to some extent a life of their own, although closely bound up 

 with the general Ufe of the individual. The death of an animal thus 

 takes place gradually in the separate parts, so that life becomes succes- 



* In this connection I may observe that plants in general have no special organs 

 within them for particular functions. Every part of a plant contains the organs 

 essential to life, and may therefore either live and vegetate separately, or as a result 

 of grafting share with another plant a life common to both ; lastly, from this order 

 of things in plants it follows that several individuals of the same species, or even only 

 of the same genus, may live on one another in the enjoyment of a common life. 



I may add that the latent buds found on the branches and even the trunk of woody 

 plants are not special organs, but the rudiments of new individuals, awaiting favour- 

 able conditions for their development. 



