108 LIFE IN NATURE, 



CHAPTER V. 



LIVING FORMS. THE LAW OF FORM. 



THESE few instances, which might be indefinitely 

 multiplied, may suffice to make it manifest that 

 organic forms are to be ascribed to causes essentially 

 the same as those which regulate the forms of 

 inorganic bodies : in short, to the laws which force 

 obeys wherever it is found. The peculiar struc- 

 ture which living bodies assume is due to the 

 mechanical conditions under which they are placed, 

 and not to a peculiar power operating to that 

 special end. That peculiar power is, indeed, dis- 

 proved, if further disproof were needed, by the 

 existence of monstrosities and deformities, in which 

 the end is not attained. The case is like that of 

 the old doctrine that nature abhorred a vacuum. 



