LIFE AND ORGANISATION.* 



[EDINBURGH KEVIEW, JANUARY 1859.] 



IN a former number of this Review (Jan. 1858), we took 

 occasion, from some remarkable works then before us, to 

 comment on those present conditions of physical science 

 which more especially mark its progress onwards, and the 

 larger scope and higher spirit now given to its pursuit. Our 

 view, however, was then confined almost exclusively to the 

 inorganic part of creation ; to those sciences which treat of 

 matter unendowed with life, and of the great natural forces 

 or powers which we recognise by, and through, their various 

 action on the material world. 



We have now before us another series of works (to which 

 many more might be added) recording the present state of 

 our knowledge of matter organised into life ; of that vast 

 domain of animal and vegetable existence which lies around 

 us ; presenting a thousand problems to our reason, and almost 

 appalling contemplation by the multitude of its objects. This 

 short and seemingly simple word Life does, in truth, in 



* 1. General Outline of the Organisation of the Animal Kingdom, and 

 Manual of Comparative Anatomy. By Thomas Rymer Jones, F.K.S. (Second 

 Edition.) London, 1855. 



2. On Parthenogenesis, or the Successive Production of Procreating 

 Individuals from a Single Ovum, from the Hunterian Lectures on Generation 

 and Development for the Year 1849. By Kichard Owen, F.R.S., &c. London, 1849. 



3. The Rambles of a Naturalist on the Coasts of France, Spain, and Sicily. 

 By A. de Quatrefages. 2 vols. 1857. 



4. Sea-side Studies at Hfracombe, Tenby, the Scilly Isles, and Jersey. By 

 George H. Lewes. 1858. 



5. The Master-Builder's Plan, or the Principles of Organic Architecture, as 

 indicated in the Typical Forms of Animals. By George Ogilvie, M.D. 1858. 



