188 Transactions of the Society. 



opinion on these matters has lately been unduly influenced by 

 a materialist party, which, like a political caucus, has assumed the 

 right to direct thought and to promulgate the particular dogma 

 which alone is to be accepted by the faithful. 



If now I permit myself to pass beyond the point to which I have 

 been led by actual observation, — if I try to advance beyond the 

 present microscopic hmit, travelling as it were upon the same lines 

 as when observing within it, and try to realize the phenomena 

 which occur during the early period of development of some com- 

 paratively simple vegetable tissue, a leaf for example, — I think the 

 following description will not be far from the truth : — A mass of 

 living matter, endowed with special powers working under certain 

 definite conditions, takes up certain materials and increases in size 

 thereby. Imparting to the new matter its powers, unweakened in 

 force, as it grows, it soon divides into several portions, each of 

 which in like manner grows and divides. The arrangement of the 

 several masses, though fixed within certain limits, is determined 

 not by any forces, powers, attractions, or repulsions acting upon all 

 of them, but simply by the rate of growth of each, and division of 

 the several masses under then existing external conditions ; the 

 dimensions each was to attain, as well as its properties, compo- 

 sition, colour, and the like being due to the life, force, or power 

 each separate mass derived from the parental one which gave it 

 origin, and from which it had been detached. But while the 

 above phenomena are proceeding, changes are also occurring on the 

 surface of each mass. The living matter in this situation, whether 

 from the particles first formed, and being therefore the oldest, 

 reaching the surface, and coming to the end of their Hving 

 existence, or from some other cause I cannot say — passes out of 

 the living state, and the component particles or certain of them 

 combine, assume a certain form, and acquire physical properties 

 they never possessed before. The formed material thus produced 

 owes its colour, chemical composition, physical characters, internal 

 structure, and the like, to the vital force or property in obedience 

 to which the elements of the matter were made to occupy such 

 positions and assume such relations with respect to one another 

 just before death as must ensure the formation of the particular 

 substances which result. 



From the moment when the formation of the formed material 

 occurred, the relative position of the several masses probably altered 

 little. Growth may no doubt take place in certain directions 

 by outgrowths, but one of the elementary parts with its surround- 

 ing formed non-living material cannot move from its place and get 

 before or above any of its neighbours, as must at least be held 

 to have been possible up to the time when its movements were 

 restricted by the formed substances on its surface. 



