CHAPTER V. 



THE SPECIFIC FORM. ITS ACQUISITION. 

 ITS REPARATION. 



§ I. Specific form not special to living beings — Connected with 

 the whole of the material conditions of the body and the 

 medium — Is it a property of chemical substance? — ^ 2. 

 Acquisition and re-establishment of the specific form — 

 Normal regeneration — Accidental regeneration in the pro- 

 tozoa and the plastids — In the metazoa. 



§ I. The Specific Form. 



The Specific Form is not Peculiar to Living Beings. 

 — The position of a specific form — the acquisition of 

 this typical form progressively reah'zed — the re-estab- 

 Hshment when some accident has altered it — these 

 are the features which we consider distinctive of living 

 beings, from the protophytes and the lowest protozoa 

 to the highest animals. Nothing gives a better idea 

 of the unity and the individuality of the living being 

 than the existence of this typical form. We do not 

 mean, however, that this characteristic belongs to the 

 living being alone, and is by itself capable of defining 

 it. We repeat that this is not a case with any 

 characteristic. In particular the typical form belongs 

 to crystal as well as to living beings. 



The Specific Fortn depends on the sum of Material 

 Conditions of the "Body and the Medium. — The con- 

 sideration of mineral bodies shows us form dependent 



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