3Q THE MYSTERY OF LIFE. 



duced. The argument is faulty throughout. 

 The supposed facts are not facts, and the con- 

 clusion is necessarily fallacious. 



The formation of a crystal in a solution is no 

 more analogous to the production of a monad 

 in a solution of organic matter, than the further 

 " growth" of the crystal is analogous to the 

 further " growth" of the monad, or than the 

 formation of a second crystal upon the first is 

 analogous to the development of a second 

 monad from that already existing. The crys- 

 talline matter can be redissolved, and will 

 crystallise again as many times as we like, but 

 the monad matter cannot be redissolved and re- 

 formified, any more than a dog or a man can be 

 dissolved and then produced again from the 

 solution. Neither man, nor any living thing, 

 nor any kind of living matter, can be dissolved, 

 for that which lives is incapable of solution. It 

 may be killed, and then some of the products 

 resulting from its death may be dissolved, but 

 this is a very different thing from dissolving the 

 living matter. Nor can the lifeless substances 

 which are dissolved ever be made to assume 

 again the form and character they once pos- 

 sessed. Nor under any circumstances can the 



