332 THE HISTORY OF CREATION. 
chemical composition and the physical forces of organic 
matter as the vital phenomena of inorganic crystals—that is, 
the process of their growth and their specific formation—are 
the direct results of their chemical composition and of their 
physical condition. The ultimate causes, it is true, remain 
in both cases concealed from us. When gold and copper 
crystallize in a cubical, bismuth and antimony in a 
hexagonal, iodine and sulphur in a rhombic form of 
crystal, the occurrence is in reality neither more nor less 
mysterious to us than is every elementary process of 
organic formation, every self-formation of the organic cell. 
In this respect we can no longer draw a fundamental 
distinction between organisms and anorgana, a distinction 
of which, formerly, naturalists were generally convinced. 
Let us secondly examine the agreements and differences 
which are presented to us in the formation of organic and 
inorganic natural bodies (Gen. Morph. i. 130). Formerly 
the simple structure of the latter and the composite 
structure of the former were looked upon as the principal 
distinction. The body of all organisms was supposed to 
consist of dissimilar or heterogeneous parts, of instruments 
or organs which worked together for the purposes of life. 
On the other hand, the most perfect anorgana, that is to say, 
crystals, were supposed to consist entirely of continuous or 
homogeneous matter. This distinction appears very essen- 
tial. But it loses all importance through the fact that in 
late years we have become acquainted with the exceedingly 
remarkable and important Monera.’ (Compare above, 
p. 185). The whole body of these most simple of all 
organisms—a semi-fluid, formless, and simple lump of 
albumen—consists, in fact, of only a single chemical combi- 
