MOR'PHOLOGICAL UNITY OF LIVING BEINGS. I7I 



organism. Both have in themselves the means of 

 life, which they neither borrow nor take from their 

 neighbours nor from the whole. All these inhabitants 

 live in the same way, are nourished and breathe in 

 the same manner, all possessing the same general 

 faculties, those of man; but each has besides, his 

 profession, his trade, his aptitudes, his talents, by 

 which he contributes to social life, and by which in 

 his turn he depends on it. Professional men, the 

 mason, the baker, the butcher, the manufacturer, the 

 artist, carry out different tasks and furnish different 

 products, the more varied, the more numerous and 

 the more differentiated, in proportion as the social 

 state has reached a higher degree of perfection. The 

 living being, animal or plant, is a city of this kind. 



Laiv of the Constitution of Organisms. — Such is 

 the complex animal. It is organized like the city. 

 But the higher law of this city is that the conditions 

 of the elementary or individual life of all the ana- 

 tomical citizens are respected, the conditions being 

 the same for all. Food, air, and light must be 

 brought everywhere to each sedentary element ; the 

 waste must be carried off in discharges which will 

 free the whole from the inconvenience or the danger 

 of such debris ; and that is why we have the different 

 forms of apparatus in the circulatory, respiratory, 

 and excretory economy. The organization of the 

 whole is therefore dominated by the necessities of 

 cellular life. This is expressed in tJie law of the con- 

 stitution of organisms formulated by Claude Bernard. 

 The organic edifice is made up of apparatus and 

 organs, which furnish to each anatomical element 

 the necessary conditions and materials for the main- 

 tenance of life and the exercise of its activity. We 



