ORGANOGENY* 183 



889. Every fraction is dead. No moiety can attain 

 to life, for it does not receive its complement. What is 

 simply fluid, cannot be organic, because it is not the 

 totality of the planet. What is simply solid, cannot be 

 organic. It is only a third of the organism. Every 

 organism is produced according to the laws of galvanism, 

 according to the law of the triplicity. 



890. As the terrestrial magnetism is indeed only one, 

 but includes an infinity of magnets, which are rendered 

 manifest in the progress of the earth's life ; so also in 

 the great galvanism of the earth an infinite number of 

 subordinate galvanic triplicities reside inclosed, which 

 become gradually detached, and, instead of the universal 

 galvanism, represent an infinity of individual galvanisms. 

 The universal galvanism cannot exist, without establish- 

 ing itself as an infinity of individual galvanisms. As ^ 

 magnetism is only associated with the net of metallic 

 veins, so is the absolute only, with the universality of its 

 finite positions. The number of organisms is infinite, 

 both in coexistence as also in consecutive existence. 



891. An organism is an individual in the rigid sense 

 of the word, because it is ruined, so soon as one of its 

 three members parts from the rest. In this sense only 

 are there properly speaking organic individuals. 



892. If we do not confine indivisibility to what is 

 mechanical, but extend it also to the chemical; indivi- 

 duals may be likewise granted to the mineral kingdom. 

 The minerals are chemical individuals ; for by separation 

 they are likewise annihilated as such, and moreover the 

 relation of mixture of chemical bodies is not one of an 

 arbitrary kind. The gray ores are a definite mixture of 

 sulphur and antimony, and are thereby individuals. The 

 silver, lead, and copper, that are accidentally mixed in 

 this compound, do not at all alter the individuality, and 

 by no means prove a capacity residing in the matters for 

 mixture in all conceivable numbers. Such a mixture 

 would be a medley only. In plants and animals casual 

 component parts occur also frequently. Thus the indi- 

 viduality of the ruby-silver appears to consist in the defi- 



