282 LIFE AND DEATH. 



posed. Crystalline forms are very widely distributed. 

 They are, in a measure, universal. Matter has a 

 decided tendency to assume these forms whenever the 

 physical forces which it obeys act with order and 

 regularity, and when their action is undisturbed by 

 accidental occurrences. In the same way, too, living 

 forms are only possible in regulated environments, 

 under normal conditions, protected from cataclysms 

 and convulsions of nature. 



The possession of a specific form is the most 

 significant feature of an organized being. Its 

 tendency, from the time it begins to develop from 

 the germ, is toward the acquirement of that form. 

 The progressive manner in which it seeks to realize 

 its architectural plan in spite of the obstacles and 

 difficulties that arise — healing its wounds, repairing 

 its mutilations — all this, in the eyes of the philo- 

 sophical biologist, forms what is perhaps the most 

 .striking characteristic of a living being, that which 

 best shows its unity and its individuality. This 

 property of organogenesis seems pre-eminently the 

 vital property. It is not so, however, for crystalline 

 bodies possess it in an almost equal degree. 



The parallel between the crystal and a living being 

 has been often drawn. I will not reproduce it here 

 in detail. My sole desire, after sketching its principal 

 features, is to call attention to the new information 

 that has been brought out by recent investigations. 



Organization of Crystals. Views of Haily, Delafossc, 

 Bravais, and of Wallerant. — In botany, zoology, 

 and crystallography we understand by form an 

 assemblage of material constituents co-ordinated in 

 a definite system — i.e., the organization itself The 

 body of man, for example, is an edifice in which sixty 



