LIVING FORMS. THE LAW OF FORM. 123 



forms, as they themselves become more perfect, the 

 physical forces in their various modes of operation 

 constituting a machinery framed expressly to realize 

 these forms."* He refers to the counteracting yet 

 co-operating effects of gravity and of heat, drawing 

 or expanding matter alike into spherical forms ; and 

 points out how living bodies, almost without excep- 

 tion, consist of cells which are spherical, except where 

 changed by pressure ; and how all organic forms 

 exhibit a spherical tendency more or less modified by 

 interfering causes. But we could not do justice to 

 his arguments without quoting all his words; and, 

 indeed, without going farther, may we not sum up 

 the lesson of these various investigations in the words 

 of the great American physiologist, Dr. J. W. 

 Draper : " The problems of organization are not 

 to be solved by empirical schemes ; they require the 

 patient application of all the aids that can be fur- 

 nished by all other branches of human knowledge, 

 and even then the solution comes tardily. Yet there 

 is no cause for us to adopt those quick but vision- 



* The Economy of Nature; or, First Lines of Science simplified. 

 Appendix, p. 108. 



