£//■£. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



23 



It 



specks 



into the 



oft 



urea. 



The resulting compounds, being insoluble, sepa- 



form of minutest 



12: d^ 



t) 



what 



weii 



^nd what 

 ^pcriments I 



:ontainina 







S living matter, which speedily develop into this or that 



kind of primordial organism. Such higher compounds 



^ateri^ might be considered to correspond to the ' physiological 



iioxa 



Mr. Herbert 



in 



order to explain the various phenomena coming 



under the head of ' organic polarity.' 



ich, in additii After pointing out that the phenomena cannot be 

 TagmentofoF accounted for if we suppose such ' polarity ' to be pos- 

 md also (^i) | sessed by the ordinary chemical constituents of living 



by their mere molecules of fibrine, albumen, or 



.led, but whicl 

 Tipurities. 



things 



omena 



are 



concerncl 



lloidal moled: 



less h 



inexplicable if we assume that such polarity is the 

 property of any kind of morphological unit (such as 



Mr 



lore or 



high temper 



« If then this organic polarity can be possessed neither 

 by the chemical units nor the morphological units, we 

 • their chaiact ^^^^ conceive it as possessed by certain intermediate 

 nder the ens ^^^^ ^\C\z\^ we may term physiological There seems 



no alternative but to suppose that the chemical units 

 combine into units immensely more complex than 



agencies, nefl' 

 bout 



amongst 



of» 



j changes ui • themselves, complex as they are ; and that in each 

 ,vhich resulte^^ organism the physiological units f)rbduced by this 



iving 



mattef' 



1 



ot 



occurrence 

 ,al molecu ; 

 . which i^^^ 



converts 



further compounding of highly compound atoms, have 

 a more or less distinctive character 2. We must con- 



^ * Principles of Biology,* vol. i. p. 182. 



• For further suggestions with regard to these physiological units, the 

 reader may consult the Appendix (p. 486) to Mr. Spencer's * principles 

 of Biology/ 



