SPECIFIC FORM. •- 287 



and plants has been compared to that of crystals. 

 Transitions or intergradations have been sought 

 between the rigid and faceted architecture of the 

 latter and the flexible structure and curved surface of 

 the former ; the utricular form of flowers of sulphur 

 on the one hand, and the geometrical structure of the 

 shells of radiolarians on the other, have shown an 

 exchange of typical forms between the two systems. 

 An effort has even been made to draw a parallel 

 between six of the principal types of the animal 

 kingdom and the six crystalline systems. If carried 

 as far as this, our thesis becomes puerile. Real 

 analogies will suffice. Among these the curious facts 

 of crystalline renewal come first. 



§ 2. Cicatrization in LiyiNG Beings and in 

 Crystals. 



We know that living beings not only possess a 

 typical architecture which they have themselves 

 constructed, but that they defend it against de- 

 structive agencies, and that if need arise they repair 

 it. The living organism cicatrizes its wounds, repairs 

 losses of substance, regenerates more or less perfectly 

 the parts that have been removed ; in other terms, 

 when it has been mutilated it tends to reconstruct 

 itself according to the laws of its own morphology. 

 This phenomenon of reconstitution or reintegration, 

 these more or less successful efforts to re-establish its 

 form and its integrity, at first appear to be a char- 

 acteristic feature of living beings. This is not the 

 case. 



Mutilation and Re-iniegration of Crystals. — Crys- 

 tals — let us say crystalline individuals — show a 



