THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 73 



organism referrible to molecular affinities, of a more 

 complex order, under similar influences. Nay, further, 

 just as the form and properties of the crystal are to be 

 taken as the natural outcome of the properties of its 

 constituent molecules under the influence of its envi- 

 ronment, so are the form and properties of the organism 

 to be considered as the natural outcome of the proper- 

 ties of its molecules, entering into combination under 

 the influence of their environing conditions. 



Views analogous to these have been more or less 

 fully expressed by many writers. The essential simi- 

 larity in the laws regulating crystalline and organic 

 forms was even suggested by Maupertuis in 1744 ^ 

 Crystals and organisms were spoken of by Burdach^ 

 as statical and dynamical aggregates respectively. We 

 have seen, moreover, that the formation of organisms 



^ Milne-Edwards says (' Physiologic et Anatom. Comp.' t. viii. p. 247 ): 

 •Maupertuis dent la celebrite est due surtout au voyage qu'il fit en 

 Laponie avec Clusant et quelques autres savants pour verifier les idees 

 de Newton touchant I'aplatisement de la terre aux poles combattait for- 

 tement la theorie de la preexistence et de remboitement des germes. II 

 crut pouvoir expliquer la formation des organismes en supposant que 

 les molecules de la matiere organisable sont douees d'une sorte d'attrac- 

 tion elective en v«rtu de laquelle ces atomes se rapprocheraient et 

 s'uniraient dans certains rapports, de fa9on a donner naissance a des 

 assemblages analogues a ceux dont ces meines molecules proviennent 

 propriete qu'il comparait tantot a I'afiinite chimique ou a I'attraction en 

 vertue de laquelle les parties constitutives d'un cristal se reunissent sui- 

 vant un ordre determine, tantot a une sorte d'instinct ou de souvenir d'un 

 ^tat anterieur. Les premiers ecrits de Maupertuis sur ce sujet parurent 

 peu d'annees avant ceux de Buffon.' (CEuvres, t. ii. p. 3, 1744.) 



^ See vol. i. p. 298, note 2. 



