\ 



90 



THE BEGINNINGS OF IIFE. 



ticular 'physiological units,' of which it is composed. 



Mr. Herbert 



We 



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is made up of special units, in all of which there 

 dwells the intrinsic aptitude to aggregate into the 



form of that species : just as in the atoms of a salt 

 there dwells the intrinsic aptitude to crystallize in 

 a particular way. It seems difficult to conceive that 

 this can be 



so: 



but we see that it, is so. Groups 

 of units taken from an organism (providing they are 

 of a certain bulk and not much differentiated 



into 



anism 



the tendency to assume the specific form as inherent 

 in all parts of the organism. Manifestly too, if we 

 are thus to interpret the reproduction of the organism 

 from one of its amorphous fragments, we must thus 

 interpret the reproduction of any minor portion of 



by the remainder. When in place of 

 its lost claw a lobster puts forth from the same spot 

 a cellular mass, which, while increasing in bulk, as- 

 sumes the form and structure of the original claw, 

 we can have no hesitation in ascribing this result to a 



+ 



have of arranging themselves into a special form," we may, with- 

 out assuming anything more than is proved, use the term "organic 

 polarity" or "polarity of the organic units" to signify the proximate 

 cause of the ability which organisms display of reproducing lost parts, 

 or of their having assumed the shape and structure which is peculiar 

 to them.' 



1 c 



3 



Principles of Biology,' 1864, vol. i. p. 181, 



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special structures) have this power of rearranging 1 Ie order to answe 

 themselves ; and we are thus compelled to recognize [ loiat occurs amo 



omena presi 

 1 Wamental na 



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 of ' fission ' ; 



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