430 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



strongest confirmation by other investigations, which 

 have taught us that similar Cihated Infusoria, of various 

 kinds_, may arise just as rapidly by reason of changes 

 taking place in a formless protoplasmic substance, 

 which but a few days previously existed as an integral 

 portion of a living plant, and performed all the func- 

 tions pertaining to its vegetal nature. What are we 

 to say under such circumstances ? Is it possible to look 

 upon the resulting Infusorial animalcule as aught elss 

 than the living morphological representative (or result- 

 ant) of the conjoint action of the molecular polarities 

 of its constituent organic atoms, under the influence of 

 the physical forces which are at the time operative ? 

 The rationale of their form and structure cannot differ, 

 so far as principle is concerned, from that similar ex- 

 planation which alone can be adduced to account for the 

 appearance, in a saline solution, of any complex crys- 

 talline form, such as a doubly oblique rhombic prism or 

 other highly-specific crystalline type. Both the Crystals 

 and the Infusoria must be regarded as the direct pro- 

 ducts of the series of actions and interactions which 

 have taken place between the materials of which they 

 are composed and the medium or environment in which 

 they exist ^ How such different products may arise 



^ Professor Huxley says : — ' It is not probable that there is any real 

 difference in the nature of the naolecular forces which compel the carbo- 

 nate of lime to assume and retain the crystalline form, and those which 

 cause the albuminoid matter to move and grow, select and form, and 

 maintain its particles in a state of incessant motion. The property of 



