ANIMAL ORGANIZATION. 81 



but their labours have hitherto been fruitless. Fanciful hy- 

 potheses in abundance might be adduced on this favourite 

 topic of speculation; but they have led to no useful or satis- 

 factory result. Haller, who pursued the inquiry with great 

 ardour, came to the conclusion that there existed what he 

 calls the simple or primordial fibre, which he represents as 

 bearing to anatomy the same relation that a line does to ge- 

 ometry. Chemical analysis alone is sufficient to overturn 

 all these hypotheses of the uniformity of the proximate ele- 

 mentary materials of the animal organs: for they are found 

 to be extremely diversified in their chemical composition. 

 Neither has the microscope enabled us to resolve the pro- 

 blem: for although it has been alleged by manj^ observers 

 that the ultimate elements of every animal structure con- 

 sists of minute globules, little confidence is to be placed in 

 these results obtained by the employment of high magnify- 

 ing powers, which are open to so many sources of fallacy. 

 That globules exist in great numbers, not only in the blood, 

 but in all animal fluids, there can be no doubt: and that 

 these globules, by cohering, compose many of the solids, is 

 also extremely 'probable. But it is very doubtful whether 

 they are essential to the composition of other parts, such as 

 the fibres of the muscles, the nerves, the ligaments, the ten- 

 dons, and the cellular texture: for the most recent, and ap- 

 parently most accurate microscopical observations tend to 

 show that no globular structure exists in any of these tex- 

 tures.* 



The element which we can recognise without difficulty 

 as composing the greater portion of animal structures, is that 

 which is known by the name of the cellular texture. Al- 

 though bearing the same designation as the elementary mate- 

 rial of the vegetable fabric, it differs widely from it, in its 

 structure and mechanical properties. It is not, like that of 

 plants, composed of a union of vesicles; but is formed of a 

 congeries of extremely thin laminae, or plates, variously con- 



* See the Appendix to Dr. Hodgkln and Dr. Fisher's translation of Ed- 

 ward's work on the Influence of Physical Agents on Life, p. 440. 



Vol. I. 11 



