The Organisation of Matter 



legists attach to these analogies an importance 

 which it is reasonable to consider exaggerated. 

 However great their interest, they do not 

 entitle us to destroy the partition which, in the 

 present state of our knowledge, separates dead 

 matter from living matter. But the question 

 may be examined in a different light. 



If a hot saturated solution is allowed to cool, 

 sometimes crystals are formed in it, but more 

 frequently it remains limpid. It is then what 

 is called supersaturated. In this state it has 

 many points of similarity with a culture-bouillon 

 sterilised by heat. It can, in like manner, be 

 preserved unaltered in sealed tubes or in vials 

 protected against the introduction of external 

 germs by a plug of cotton-wool inserted in their 

 necks. But if the protecting plug is removed, 

 or the tube unsealed, numerous crystalline 

 groups are frequently found to form in the 

 liquid mass, pervading it little by little, just 

 as the bouillon under similar conditions gradually 

 fills with swarming colonies. Both phenomena 

 have the same explanation crystallisation re- 

 quires in this case the presence of a crystalline 



germ, just as life needs a living germ. Both 



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