CHAPTER VII. 



GENERATION IN BRUTE BODIES AND LIVING 

 BODIES. SPONTANEOUS GENERATION. 



Protoplasm a substance which continues Case of the crystal- 

 Characteristics of generation in the living being Property 

 .of growth Supposed to be confined to the living being 

 Fertilization of micro-organisms Fertilization of crystals 

 Sterilization of crystalline and living media Spontaneous 

 generation of crystals Metastable and labile zones 

 Glycerine crystals Possible extinction of a crystalline 

 species Conclusion. 



WE have not yet exhausted the analogies between a 

 crystal and the living being. The possession of a 

 specific form, the tendency to re-establish it by re- 

 disintegration and the existence of a kind of nutrition 

 are not sufficient to constitute complete similarity. 

 It still lacks a fundamental character, that of genera- 

 tion. Chauffard some time ago, in an attack which 

 he made upon the physiological ideas of his day, 

 aptly exhibited this weak point. " Let us disregard," 

 he said, "those interesting facts relative to the acquisi- 

 tion of a typical form facts that are common to the 

 mineral world as well as to living beings. It is none 

 the less true that the crystalline type is in no way 

 derived from other pre-existing types, and that 

 nothing in crystallization recalls the actions ot 

 ascendants and the laws of heredity." 



This gap has since been filled. The work of 

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