PRIMARY DIVISION OF BODIES. 3 



manner of treating it alone, to include within its province not only 

 the planet which we inhabit, but even the whole visible universe 1 . 

 The certainty to which we can attain in this science is grounded 

 upon the testimony of our own senses, on that of other observers, 

 and upon conclusions, drawn from the combination of particular 

 observations (Induction) : of which conclusions the security is 

 increased in proportion to the number of observed phenomena 

 which tend to their establishment ; for observation is the principal 

 foundation upon which this science is raised. 



Organic and Inorganic Bodies. 



A primary division of the bodies of our earth is that according 

 to which they are separated into organic (organica), and inorganic 

 (anorganica). Inorganic bodies can grow, or increase in bulk, only 

 by external addition of homogeneous parts ; they possess no hetero- 

 geneous parts, though they may be composed of several chemical 

 elements. In their perfect condition they ordinarily present regular 

 forms, which are bounded by planes and straight lines. The 

 knowledge of them is the object of Mineralogy. 



The remaining bodies are called organic, because they consist 

 of different parts, of fibres, vessels, cells, &c., the combination of 

 which is called organisation. In these bodies there prevails that 

 mutual dependence between all the parts, of which, in the inorganic, 

 we recognise no trace. In these last, each of the parts exists for 

 itself, and when separated from the whole does not cease to be the 

 same that the whole was before. As to form, the boundaries which 

 circumscribe plants and animals are very generally round surfaces 

 and curved lines, very rarely straight lines and planes. 



Organic beings present phenomena which are called ' Vital 

 Phenomena,' of which the most general consist in an incessant 

 susception of new matters, in the formation of new parts and 

 organs (Growth, Development, Reproduction), and in the production 

 of similar beings (Propagation). The separation of those constitu- 

 ents of food that are unfit for nutriment, and of matters that have 

 been changed through the action of life, and are no longer fitted for 



Cosmographia, Historia Mundi. 



12 



