THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 85 



a crystal produced under a certain set of conditions 

 may be compelled by its very nature, when these are 

 changed, to undergo an entire molecular rearrangement 

 before a polar equilibrium can be again established 

 between the same molecules and the new influences 

 to which they are subjected. New-born matter of all 

 kinds ought to show, to a more or less marked extent, 

 a similar plasticity: and if the combinations which 

 constitute ' living matter ' are more unstable than those 

 to which we have just been referring, then the forms 

 assumed by such sensitive matter under different con- 

 ditions ought to become more and more divergent. 



