NATURAL HISTORY OF CREATION. 133 



a (jlobide, haviiKj a ncio globule forniln<j mlthhi itsrlf, by 

 which it is in time discharged, and whicli is again fol- 

 lowed by another and another, in endless succession. It 

 is of course obvdous that, if these globules could be pro- 

 duced by any process from inorganic elements, we should 

 be entitled to say that the fact of a transit from the 

 inorganic into the organic had been witnessed in that 

 instance ; the possibility of the commencement of nni- 

 mated ci-eation by the ordinary laws of nature might 

 be considered as established. Now it was announced 

 some years ago by a French physiologist, that glohides 

 could he 2)roduced in albumen by electricity. If, therefore, 

 these globules be identical with the cells which are now 

 held to be reproductive, it might be said that the pro- 

 duction of albumen by artificial means is the only step 

 in the process wanting. This has not yet been eflected ; 

 but it is known to be only a chemical process, the mode 

 of wdiich may be any day discovered in the laboratory, 

 and two compounds perfectly co-ordinate, urea and allan- 

 toin, have actually been produced. 



In such an investigation as the present, it is not un- 

 worthy of notice that the production of shell is a natural 

 operation which can be precisely imitated artificijdly. 

 8uch an incrustation takes place on both the outside and 

 inside of the wheel in a l)leaching establishment, in which 

 cotton cloth is rinsed free of the lime employed in its 

 purification. From the dressing employed by the weaver, 

 the cloth obtains the animal matter, gelatin ; this and 

 the lime form the constituents of the incrustation, exactly 

 as in natural shell. In the wheel employed at Catrine, 

 in Ayrshire, where the phenomenon was first observed 

 by the eye of science, it had required ten years to produce 

 a coating the tenth of an inch in thickness. This in- 

 crustration has all the characters of shell, displaying a 



