THE ORGANIC AND INORGANIC KINGDOMS, 127 



fungus, Torula cerevisice (supposed to be one form of the Penicillium 

 glaucum\ produces alcohol ; at lower temperatures, under the action 

 of the vinegar plant, Mother, or Mycoderma aceti (said to be another 

 form of Penicillium glaucwm), it yields acetic acid ; and in the pres- 

 ence of Oidium laotis (likewise referred by some to the same fungus), 

 lactic acid. These facts, moreover, furnish proof of the identity of 

 the chemical force acting in the organic world, and that which is arti- 

 ficially set in operation by man. 



Furthermore, organic bodies, with the large number of their atoms, 

 and their complex molecular constitution, are extremely liable to de- 

 composition, as exhibited in various ways; thus they are, for the most 

 part, unstable or prone to putrefaction, though it must be admitted 

 that there are likewise inorganic compounds of most unstable charac- 

 ter. The action of heat on organic compounds is invariably com- 

 pletely destructive, their elements being resolved into other and 

 simpler compounds, such as the products of destructive distillation or 

 decomposition, which, on the withdrawal of heat, do not reunite to 

 form the original complex organic substance; wood, e. g., gives, by 

 distillation, tar, methylic alcohol, benzole, acetone, acetic acid, and 

 certain gaseous substances; and, if completely burnt, yields carbonic 

 acid and water, which substances do not reunite to form wood. Most 

 inorganic bodies are comparatively stable, and do not undergo putre- 

 faction; moreover, though always changed in condition, and frequently 

 decomposed, when subjected to the action of elevated temperatures, 

 they may, and often do, relapse into their original state when the 

 temperature is again lowered. 



Organic bodies are still further, and more distinctly, characterized 

 by their structure, which is always heterogeneous. Thus, organic 

 bodies are composed of different parts named organs and tissues, each 

 bearing a certain relation to the rest, having peculiar uses, and con- 

 sisting of a mixture of solid, fluid, and even gaseous materials, and 

 not exclusively of one or other condition or kind of matter; the solids 

 serve to support and hold together the organs or tissues, and to con- 

 tain the fluid parts; whilst the fluid parts, which hold the gases in 

 solution, are necessary for the diffusion of nutritive materials amongst 

 the solids. The organs and tissues themselves are not homogeneous, 

 but also consist of organic structural elements, frequently of the so- 

 called vesicular, or naked, nucleated cells, and other parts, exhibiting 

 minute but regular and definite details of structure, the whole being 

 usually inclosed in a general investment. The simplest animals and 

 plants, and the animal germs and vegetable spores, likewise exhibit 

 such definite structure, consisting, as we have seen, either of cysto- 

 plasts or gymnoplasts, i. e., of vesicular or naked nucleated cells. 

 Even simple nuclei, and the primitive protoplasm, consist of elemen- 

 tary granules. 



It is necessary to admit that this definite cell-structure, which is 

 the characteristic of obvious "organization," and perhaps also the 

 formation of protoplastic nuclei and granules, are not merely neces- 

 sary conditions of "life " or " vital action," but are themselves products 

 of such action, assimilative and formative, metabolic and inetamorphic. 



