510 GERMINATION AND GENERATION. 



pillary tubes of dead matter; but with this dif- 

 ference, that the force is much greater in living 

 vessels, owing to their extreme minuteness, com- 

 pared with artificial tubes. The conversion of 

 sap into organic molecules, and the latter into 

 woody fibre, bark, leaves, flowers, fruits, and dif- 

 ferent secretions, is no less the result of attrac- 

 tion than the generation of water, salts, rocks, 

 and other chemical compounds. 



The first process of germination consists in a 

 chemical fermentation in the seed, by which a 

 portion of its substance is converted into sugar and 

 carbonic acid, while another portion is changed 

 into living organic molecules, that are arranged 

 in symmetrical order, corresponding with the pa- 

 rent type from which it sprung, The generation 

 of confervae and animal infusoria, during the pu- 

 trefaction of organic matter, is no less the result 

 of attraction than the conversion of sap into trees, 

 and blood into the structure of animals, whether 

 produced from seeds and eggs, or without the 

 concurrence of parents, as maintained by Need- 

 ham, Priestley, Ingenhouz, Monti, Wrisberg, Tie- 

 demann, Muller, Treviranus, and many other 

 distinguished philosophers. The same is true of 

 the different species of entozoa found in the liver, 

 brain, eyes, veins, and other parts of warm 

 blooded animals, which seem to be formed by 

 the immediate combinations of morbid secretions 

 in the parenchyma of their organs, according to 



