72 PHYSIOLOGY OF LIFE, 



step forward from out the inorganic world only to fall 

 back again upon it, still, however, under a new form, and 

 under the predominance of the more active pole of mag- 

 netism. The product must have the same connexion, 

 therefore, with azote, which the first rudiments of vegeta- 

 tion have with carbon : the one and the other exist not 

 for their own sakes, but in order to produce the conditions 

 best fitted for the production of higher forms. In the 

 polypi, corallines, &c., individuality is in its first dawn; 

 there is the same shape in them all, and a multitude of 

 animals form, as it were, a common animal. And as the 

 individuals run into each other, so do the different genera. 

 They likewise pass into each other so indistinguishably, 

 that the whole order forms a very network. 



As the corals approach the conchylia, this interrami- 

 fication decreases. The tubipora forms the transition to 

 the serpula ; for the characteristic of all zoophytes, namely, 

 the star shape of their openings, here disappears, and the 

 tubiporse are distinguished from the rest of the corals by 

 this very circumstance, that the hollow calcareous pipes 

 are placed side by side, without interbranching. In the 

 serpula they have already become separate. How feeble 

 this attempt is to individuate, is most clearly shown in 

 their mode of generation. Notwithstanding the report 

 of Professor Pallas, it still remains doubtful whether 

 there exists any actual copulation among the polypi. 

 The mere existence of a polypus suffices for its endless 

 multiplication. They may be indefinitely propagated by 

 cuttings, so languid is the power of individuation, so 

 boundless that of reproduction. But the delicate jelly 

 dissolves, as lightly as it was formed, into its own product, 



