114 



HABIT AND INTELLIGENCE. 



[chap. 



Germinal 

 matter has 

 no struc- 

 ture. 



Crystalli- 

 zation and 

 organiza- 

 tion. 



Eeaction 

 of formed 

 on un- 

 formed 

 material. 



nutritive and motor functions that show them to have the 

 characteristically vital relation to matter and energy. And 

 the "germinal matter" of organisms, previous to its trans- 

 formation into their " formed material," is without struc- 

 ture, though it has in the highest degree what I regard as 

 the characteristically vital properties. 



It needs no proof that the unformed but formative 

 material of a crystallizable substance (as, for instance, a 

 salt while in solution) has a constant tendency to assume 

 the form and structure of the crystalline species, and does 

 assume it when circumstances favour. The same is true 

 of the unformed but formative material, or " germinal 

 matter," of organisms ; the germinal matter of every 

 organic species constantly tends to assume the form and 

 structure of the species to which it belongs. Hence is the 

 power of a germ, when placed under favouring circumstances, 

 to transform itself into the perfect form of its species. Hence 

 (what is essentially the same property) the power, among 

 many plants and among the lowest animals, of a cut-off 

 part to transform itself into a perfect individual. And, 

 what is only a lower degree of the same, the power of re- 

 pairing injuries, which all organisms possess in a sensible 

 degree, and which has been observed also in crystals.^ 



In organisms also, as in crystals, the formed material 

 reacts on the properties of the unformed but formative 

 material. The strongest instance of this is the sympathetic 

 reproduction of injuries, which, as we have seen, occurs in 

 crystals^ as well as in organisms, and is due to the formed 

 material, which has suffered the original injury, modifying 

 the further action of the formative material. ^ 



But what is organization? and how does organic structure 

 essentially differ from crystalline structure ? 



1 P. 75. 



^ Dr. Beale speaks of different kinds of gemiLual matter. But notwith- 

 standing my high respect for his scientific attainments and scientific 

 services, I submit it is much more likely that there should be only one 

 kind of germinal matter in each organic species, and that this ministers to 

 the growth of whatever tissue it occurs in. This view is supported by the 

 fact, that the smallest portion from any part of an hydra, or other such low 

 organism, will reproduce the entire form belonging to the species. 



