112 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



imparts the actual character and meaning to the 

 individual as a living whole. 



Granting then, as there can be little doubt we 

 should grant, that these radio-organisms are in 

 reality aggregates of crystals and yet not crystalline 

 because the constituent crystals are not isomor- 

 phously arranged, we are induced to look upon 

 whatever properties they possess when acting in- 

 dividually as distinct from crystals in their separate 

 states. This diiFerence, we are induced to think, is 

 of such a nature that, in whatever light crystals may 

 be looked upon, radiobes and living proteid generally 

 are not crystals whether composed of them or not. 



These bodies, as we have said, are neither crys- 

 talline nor colloid in disguise, though colloids, 

 as aggregates, but something more : and crystals 

 in their constituent parts. The point which 

 distinguishes them from both of these is perhaps 

 the fundamental principle which marks them out 

 at once as possessing the elements of vitality in 

 a primitive and most undeveloped state. 



