240 SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



ledges yet another prominent influence in the forma- 

 tion of his ideas. Cuvier, the zoologist, contemplating 

 the existing forms of nature from one of the two main 

 points of view, was impressed with the contrast be- 

 tween the lifeless and the living, seeing in the latter 

 stability of form, not of substance, what we should 

 now term dynamical equilibrium. To him the vor- 

 tex is the symbol of life. De Candolle in studying 

 plants is struck with the underlying regularity and 

 symmetry "of their formation. His views were formed 

 after very extensive practical occupation with descriptive 

 botany, which was followed by a lengthy residence in 

 Paris, where, next to Cuvier, he came greatly under 

 the influence of the Abbe Haliy, the founder of 

 crystallography. 1 From the Jussieus he learnt the im- 

 portance of looking at the " ensemble," the " port et 

 aspect " (facies, habitus) ; 2 from them and Cuvier the 

 value of the principle of the subordination of characters, 

 and the correlation of parts in the organisation of the 

 whole. 3 But he fastens mostly upon the underlying 



1 De Candolle, ' The"orie ele"men- conduit a quelques-unes des ide"es 

 taire de la Botanique,' 2nd ed., que j'exposerai dans le livre sui- 

 Paris, 1819, p. 72 : " Je dois encore vant." Cf. also ' Organographie 

 compter, au nombre des causes qui vege'tale,' Paris, 1827, vol. ii. p. 

 ont influe sur 1'amelioration des 237. 



2 'Th&>rie elementaire, ' p. 89; 



me"thodes botaniques, d'un cot les 

 perfectionnemens importans que la 

 classification zoologique a re^us, 



also, p. 216. 



3 This principle is stated very 



principalement par les travaux clearly by Cuvier in many places 



philosophiques de M. Cuvier, trav- | e.g., in the celebrated " Discours " 



aux qui ont reagi sur quelques i prefaced to the ' Recherches sur 



parties de la Botanique elle-meme, I les Ossemens Fossiles ' (3rd ed., 



et dont je m'honore d'avoir profit^ ; ' 4to, 1825, vol. i. p. 47) : " Tout 



de 1'autre, les importans travaux de i etre organise forme un ensemble, 



M. Haiiy sur les lois de la crystallisa- 

 tion, et notamment sur les d&rois- 



un systeme unique et clos, dont les 

 parties se correspondent mutuelle- 



semens des rangees de molecules des ! ment, et concourent a la meme 

 cristaux, lois par lesquelles j'ai ete action definitive par une reaction 



