TIT. 
The Phenomena of Reproductior. in the Animal World. 
THE faculty of giving existence to new life is part of 
the evidence of life. A crystal does not reproduce 
itself, it can only be resolved into its elementary consti- 
tuents; and in the natural course of things, or in an 
artificial manner, these may be induced to form another 
crystalline combination. But this is not that con- 
tinuity of reproduction which links individual to indivi- 
dual, is not procreation wrapped in a cloud of mystery. 
Herein, it seems, consists a stubborn opposition. Yet, 
if the distinction between animate and inanimate nature 
has been recognized as one not entirely absolute; 
especially if the possibility, nay even the necessity, has 
been perceived of the primordial generation or parent- 
less origin of the lowest organic beings from inorganic 
matter (of which more hereafter), and if the nature of 
nutrition and growth is understood to be entirely 
dependent on the power of obtaining material,—the 
mystery of reproduction henceforth disappears. Gene- 
ration is no longer a mystical event; and the origin of 
an organism in or from an organism, the emission or 
development of innumerable germs, may, like the 
origin of a new crystal, be analyzed into the motions 
of elements, as yet accessible only to the eye of imagi- 
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