THE SPECIFIC FORM. 20I 



chromosomes, and that of the nucleoles ? And is not 

 each of these probably a very complex mixture ? 



However, it is to this mixture that we attribute the 

 possession of a form, in virtue of and by extension of 

 the principles of crystallization, which definitely teach 

 us that these mixtures cannot have form ; that form . 

 is the attribute of pure bodies, and is only obtained 

 by the separation of the blended parts — i.e., by a 

 return to homogeneity. There are therefore very 

 good reasons for hesitating before we transfer the 

 absolute principle of the dependence between 

 chemical form and composition, as some philo- 

 sophical biologists have done, from the physical 

 sciences — where it is already subject to serious 

 restrictions — to the biological sciences. 



Le Dantec, however, has made this principle the 

 basis of his biological system. He therefore finds in 

 the crystal the model of the living being. He thus 

 gives a physical basis to life. 



Is it a question in this system of explaining this 

 incomprehensible, this unfathomable mystery, which 

 shows the egg cell attracting to itself materials from 

 without and progressively building up that amazing 

 structure which is the body of the animal, the body of 

 a man, of any given man, of Primus, for example? 

 It is said that the substance of Primus is specific. 

 His living substance is his own, special to him; and 

 that, too, from the beginning of the egg to the end of 

 its metamorphosis. It only remains to apply to this 

 substance the postulate, borrowed from crystallo- 

 graphy, of the absolute dependence of the nature of 

 substance on the form it assumes. The form of the 

 body of the animal, of the man, of Primus, is the 

 crystalline form of their living substance- It is the 



