96 ZOOPHYTES. 
able to carry on the reproductive processes of growth,—the vital 
forces and nutriment become directed within, and the new function 
of germination is developed. The whole animal and vegetable king- 
doms contain throughout illustrations of this principle. 
94. We have thus prepared the way for the following law, which 
holds equally, whether the germ-cellule be that of an organ of an 
animal or plant, or that from which a living being itself proceeds :— 
The developement of a germ, from a cellule or cluster of cellules, requires 
the concentration of a specific amount of vital force, and a certain tri- 
butary space where this force exists ; proper nutrition being afforded, 
reproduction necessarily takes place; and, when existing reproductive 
centres cannot appropriate all the reproductive force and nutriment, new 
reproductions commence.* 
* The existence of vital foree as a cause has been of late doubted, and its supposed 
effects attributed to mere chemical forces. This is not the place for a display of argu- 
ment upon this subject: neither does the point seem to require it. The single fact, often 
urged, that inorganic matter takes on angular forms, and organic rounded, seems to decide 
the question. The perfect individual in the former, has plain faces of fixed angular 
dimensions, and proceeds from attractions in straight lines, having fixed mathematical 
relations. Solidification is in fact only the union of particles by these axes, which are 
assumed generally at the time the change of condition commences. Crystallization and 
solidification are, therefore, one and the same process ; for the particles of a solid are 
always possessed of this crystalline attraction, although they may constitute together an 
amorphous mass. Even those so-called organic substances, which the chemist claims to 
have made, still show the same powers of crystallization on becoming solid. 
But in the tissues of plants and animals, there are no planes or solid angles, except 
such as may result from pressure. Where, indeed, is there the slightest analogy to a 
crystal in an oblong cellule filled with fluids? And in the budding of cellules from one 
another, and the formation of linear series, what resemblance to a solid filament of 
crystals? Crystals or crystalline masses are secreted by organic life; but these proceed 
from, and never take the place of, living cellules. There must, therefore, be some con- 
trolling influence, which prevents thesparticles from uniting into crystal shapes, and 
moulds them into growing cellules,—some power which makes the curving outline as 
characteristic of the organic kingdom, as straight lines and fixed angles of the crystal 
kingdom, ‘This power or influence is called vitality. By it, the constituent molecules 
of a germ are themselves controlled, and are enabled also to bring other molecules into 
the same living state. 
The functions of a germ, however, are not simply its vitality; chemical attractions are 
a principal source of the various compositions and decompositions in progress ; and all 
those causes that influence chemical combinations, such as light, heat, and electricity, 
and the various laws under which such combinations take place, are here in action, 
Chemical ¢xertia plays an important part in continuing processes which have been begun. 
It is possible that some compounds are formed, which chemistry, without vitality, would 
