290 THE OLIVE LEAF. CHAP. 



out its own pattern, and it cannot overstep the laws 

 of its form. 



But in the effort to conform to this primitive pattern 

 in the case of parts that are wounded, nature cannot 

 attain to a complete identity of form or substance. The 

 scar of a wound on the finger is not effaced, but grows 

 as the body grows, and is clearly distinguishable to the 

 end of life; and the substance with which the wound 

 has been filled up and assimilated to the surrounding 

 structure is of a lower kind with a lower energy. Vital 

 action in parts that have been injured and then healed 

 cannot rise to its specific elevation ; the vitality of the 

 part has undergone a certain degeneration, and material 

 of an inferior order to the proper element of the part is 

 produced, in which an inferior kind of action is alone 

 possible. The lymph that is thrown out to heal the 

 wound is the simple result of a deterioration of energy ; 

 just as the convergence of the nutritious juices of an 

 oak-tree towards the wound caused by an insect for the 

 introduction of its egg is a kind of hypertrophy of the 

 tissues, in which starch, which is an inferior product, is 

 deposited in the cells. It is an exceedingly curious fact 

 that the animal and vegetable kingdoms, which have 

 such remarkable correspondences in other respects, also 

 resemble each other in the repairing of their wounds. 

 The cicatrical tissue in plants as well as in animals does 

 not acquire the full structure of that which it replaces. 

 The new tissue is devoid of stomata or breathing-pores, 

 and, as in animal scars, there are produced no sweat- 

 glands or hair-follicles. But though the substance and 



