142 Animal Morphology. 



kingdom, there can be no real representative of a nervous 

 system above all, of a sentient nervous system, as the brain, 

 etc., as is here maintained ; for, as already advanced, the 

 brain, which is part of a tripartite membrane, is viewed 

 only as a peculiar morphology of muscle, and wherever 

 there is animal muscle there we have some kind of a brain 

 or neural mass, however small or oddly arranged ; and these 

 two systems, the cerebral and the animal muscular systems, 

 are so arranged that, however fragmentary and apparently 

 independent one system is of another, yet that these two 

 systems are always mutually interdependent and co-related. 



Yet, even here, vital force asserts its right to turn to use, in 

 its multifarious products, the principles in one kingdom by 

 adopting them in another; and the exogens and endogens 

 are independent expressions of the principle of invergency 

 and evergency in very complex mechanisms, side by side 

 very simple mechanisms, in which the different principles of 

 inevergent and evergent mechanism are adopted. Thus we 

 have, as exogens, the fine and complex mechanism from ovum 

 to fruit of the massive oak, and the more simple one of a cow- 

 slip or a strawberry, etc.; or, of endogens, in the lofty cocoa- 

 nut and the fragile grass, or the beautiful tulip. The prin- 

 ciple is the same its mode of application is as contrasting 

 as a needle is to a steam-engine. 



The general conclusion arrived at from the foregoing 

 examination of matter, organized and unorganized, is, that 

 vital force manifests itself obedient to general laws, and in 

 detail adapts itself to particular mechanical principles, and 

 to uniform plans of mechanical simplicity and complexity, in 

 constructing bodies from the lowest forms to those of the 

 highest order of organization. 



The principles of mechanism, and the general laws to 

 which the whole universe is subject, are so harmonious in 

 their operations, that the Architect and Law-giver must be 



