114 THE GERM THEORY OF DISEASE. 



While there are almost unending differences of outward con- 

 formation there is a continuous physiological sameness in them 

 all. While certain cells are endowed with the power of com- 

 bination for building wonderful forms, as in man or in the 

 tiger, in the lofty palm or the forest oak, others, not pos- 

 sessing the power of organization into complex forms, fall 

 apart and carry on their physiological processes singly, as iii 

 the yeast plant, or the mycoderma aceti. In the unicellular 

 organisms, all the vital functions, so far as they are differenti- 

 ated, are carried on in the single cell ; and in the higher 

 animals which proceed from the growth and development of 

 some single, and equally minute germ, specialization of func- 

 tion goes hand in hand with specialization of physical form. 

 Yet in all this specialization there is no radical change in the 

 functions of the individual cells; nor is the sum total of the 

 physiological phenomena modified in their nature. In the 

 one matter of seeds, we are amazed and confused, by the 

 never ending varieties of form ; but in the examination of 

 the physiology of seed forms and the awakening of the germ 

 into active life, we find each to consist of a germ with the 

 accompaniment of a store of formed food material for the 

 nutrition of that germ, until it has formed the organs for the 

 gathering of its own food ; and the physiological means of 

 using that store is practically the same in them all. If we 

 examine the egg, the result is the same. Among the varieties 

 of form there is but one plan. 



In most cases, apparent new functions, seen as we ascend 

 the scale of life, consist, when closely examined, of vicarious 

 cell action. Not a new function, but a particular function 

 performed for the community of cells, so to speak, by certain 

 cells specialized for that purpose; as we have already seen 

 in the matter of digestion. We find the specialization of 

 muscular fibre for the performance of complex motion through 



