192 From Matter to Man. 



or external cells, hence, the shape of the living 

 albuminoid animal practically determines the form of 

 its crystalline core or covering. The shape again is 

 largely, if not wholly, a matter of chance. Thus, in 

 the coral, the particular spot at which a bud appears 

 is not intentionally determined upon by any single 

 polyp, or by the whole colony in anxious deliberation, 

 but occurs solely through the automatic energy of the 

 substance itself detecting a suitable breathing space ; 

 this energy in all substance being polarity. 



Hence the tree-like, or plant-like forms of animals 

 are undoubtedly produced by the same energy which 

 forms the frost ferns and snow shrubs, and even the 

 buds and branches on plants. Each animal absorbs 

 automatically the right kind of substance by the 

 substance's own automatic law of like-material-attrac- 

 tion ; and, as a magnet, its form is determined by 'the 

 equally automatic and all-powerful law of all growing 

 substance — like-polar-repulsion. 



Electric Animals. — From our view of the vast 

 influence wielded by magnetism in natural operations, 

 fishes are, in a sense, the most important of all animals, 

 for they illustrate in a practical way the magnetic 

 nature of their mechanism, and corroborate our theory 

 that all organisms, from the amoeba to man, are 

 natural electric machines. 



About fifty species of fishes with electrical properties 

 are known, but only a few have been minutely in- 

 vestigated. The most familiar are the Torpedo, the 

 Gymnotus, and the Thunderer-fish of the Arabs. 



