78 VITALISM AND SCHOLASTICISM 



be argued that there was no fundamental differ- 

 ence between the two processes. The differ- 

 ence just mentioned is fundamental in character 

 and sufficient in itself to distinguish the two 

 processes. But beyond this it may be pointed 

 out that when a crystal is formed by the 

 evaporation of the solution of some salt, say 

 the sulphate of copper which is formed into 

 the huge blue crystalline masses often exposed 

 in chemists' windows, what happens is that 

 particles of an identical chemical character 

 come together and take up for reasons, it 

 must frankly be admitted, of which we are 

 entirely ignorant the characteristic form or 

 any of the characteristic forms of the substance 

 which was in solution. So that a crystal is a 

 mass of homogeneous particles, collected to- 

 gether and built up into a regular edifice. 

 Suppose we add new material to this, with 

 a view to increasing the size of the edifice. 

 All that happens is that new material of a 

 precisely similar character is added layer by 

 layer to the surface of the old, and this new 

 material must be identical in character with 

 that to which it is added. But in the cell, not 

 only is the addition not layer by layer but 

 interstitial and intimate, but also the sub- 

 stances which are taken in are moulded to the 

 purposes of the cell and are broken up and 



