30 REPORT—1846. . 
put together as a ribbon, or to a slip of metal, the only difference being the increase 
of force in the latter instances, If the galvanic wire be bent in a circle, or if several 
wires are arranged so as to form a series of concentric rings, or if, which is the same 
thing, a spiral coil of wire be made, the magnetic force still retains the same direc- 
tion as in the straight wire; but as the whole of the wire acts upon the circle of mag- 
netic force, its direction is through the centre of the ring or coil. If such a spiral 
coil be placed on iron filings, they arrange themselves in lines, passing through the 
centre parallel to its axis, and then folding up on either side as radii round the edge, 
where they meet. These experiments were quoted from Dr. Faraday. Such a spiral 
coil, through which galvanic force circulates, was considered to represent the disc 
around the embryo; and the iron filings to represent the direction of the capillary 
vessels, arranged circularly in a plane, at right angles to the disc, by the magnetic 
force accompanying the galvanic. From comparing the two, the conclusion was drawn, 
that in both cases the force at work obeys the same laws; that the formation of a 
circular living disc, by a central force constantly acting, proves the existence of a 
circular force around that centre, and is analogous to a flat spiral or disc, through 
which the galvanic force is circulating; and that this vital force in the disc is neces- 
sarily attended by a second circulating force in the direction of radii to it, such as is 
indicated by the vessels. The actual movements of the cells in this living process 
are invisible, as it is one of growth; but the forms produced are explicable on the 
hypothesis that the living force acts in accordance with the laws of a force the direc- 
tion and relation of which have been ascertained. This analogy is rendered still more 
probable by the connexion between heat and galvanism discovered by Seebeck. If 
a current of heat instead of a current of galvanism be made to circulate through the 
spiral coil of wire, it will, like galvanism, develope magnetic currents in the direction 
of radii to the centre. Now as the mother’s heat is the source which supplies force 
to the embryo, in both instances, in the metal coil of wire and in the disc the force is 
in the form of heat. In both there is a primary concentric arrangement of matter 
for the transmission of this force; and in both there is the evidence of a second cir- 
cular force in a plane at right angles to the first. 
If, instead of the arrangement of the galvanic wire as a flat spiral coil, the rings are 
arranged side by side, as a spiral tube or helix, then the second or magnetic force 
would be through its axis. It would be a tube, which, if placed in water, would carry 
one pole of a magnetic needle, floated on cork, through it; and iron filings would 
arrange themselves in a circular line, going through the helix, round on the outside, 
returning into itself (Faraday). The spiral galvanic force here is attended by the 
current through the tube. The converse would be the case. The steps in the forma- 
tion of vessels are, that blood is first formed, and when it circulates a tube is formed 
around it. The current of blood indicates a force through the axis of the tube; the 
tube itself indicates a circumferential force around the current to arrange its materials 
as a tube. The tubes are arranged circularly, meeting at the heart in the centre, and 
at the capillaries in the circumference. The living tube, if it followed electro-mag- 
netic laws, would have (like the helix of wire through which the galvanic force was 
circulating) a circular force through its axis; and conversely, this current would tend 
to form a tube around itself—supposing always appropriate materials. The vital 
force has evidently appropriate materials in the form of cells. Those cells, which 
exposed to oxygen become converted into red globules, are moved in a current; thus 
showing that they are fit matter for the influence of vital force in one direction, and 
that such a force is moving them; whereas the smaller cells are arranged round the 
current as a tube; thus showing a second force at work around the first. There is a 
current in one direction, and a tube around it; neither tube nor current can be ex- 
plained without the assumption of a moving power: both are readily explained by 
two circular forces having the same relation to each other as the electro-magnetic. 
The cells out of which the disc and vessels are built have been regarded so far as 
under the influence of a force external to them. But each cell has a vital force of its 
own, similar in kind to the central force, but less in degree. The central force sub- 
ordinates all lesser forces and makes the disc one. Embryologists have shown that 
the earliest appearance of organization in the ovules of plants and ova of animals is a 
cell, and that such cell has a nucleus, and each nucleus a nucleolus, or central spot, 
which is the essential part of each cell, and which has the power of forming cells and 
of arranging them round it. Dr. Barry has shown that each secondary cell becomes 
