X.] ORGANIZATION. 113 



The same is not quite so evident of organic forms, bnt 

 it is equally true of them also. Organic form and struc- 

 ture are the result of the organic formative principle ; or, 

 in briefer words, life is the cause of organization : organi- Life is the 

 zation is not the cause of life. Organization is not essen- or^aniza- 

 tial to life : it is not the differentia of living beings. The tion. 

 differentia of living beings consists, I believe, in those 

 peculiar relations to matter and energy which have been 

 explained in the last chapter : organization is only one of 

 the most general and most important results of life. 



The proof of this is, that while, as every one will admit, 

 there can be no organization except where there has been 

 life, there may be, and is, life where there is no organiza- 

 tion. It is an observed fact, independent of any inference 

 or any theory, that life exists prior to organization. The 

 germs of organisms are not miniatures of the perfect form, 

 nor are the perfect forms produced from the germs by any 

 process that can be properly described as unfolding : on 

 the contrary, the germs are without structure and without 

 definite form, and have no character whatever, whether 

 chemical or microscopic, by which the germ of one organism 

 can be known from that of another, however unlike the 

 species may be.^ This fact, that all organisms are de- Organic 

 veloped out of perfectly simple germs, is, from a purely ^vithont^ 

 scientific point of view, probably the most important of all structure, 

 the discoveries of modern physiology. But though with- 

 out structure, the germ assimilates matter and grows, thus 

 showing that it possesses the characteristically vital pro- 

 perties with respect to matter, and probably with respect 

 to energy also.^ In all but the very lowest classes of 

 organisms, the germ, as it grows, acquires structure and 

 organization. But it is a most significant fact, that some 

 of the lowest animals (of which the amoeba is probably 

 the best-known type) never acquire any structure what- as are some 

 ever, or any constant form : they continue to be mere orcrauisms. 

 minute gelatinous masses, which however exercise those 



^ Carpenter's Comparative Physiology, p. 25. 



* See the preceding chajiter. It is to be regretted that we have no single 

 ■word for living being except organism, a word which suggests the untrue 

 notion that organization is the essential point in life. ■ 



I 



