REVERSION, NOT A LAW, SUI GENERIS. 131 



purpose of forming a new, like coordination; as, is 

 an organism, when it evolves, or exudes sexually, or 

 asexually, a reproductive element. 



Not a little prejudice exists against a perfect type. 

 This prejudice is, in a measure, justified; owing to the 

 vague and gratuitous manner in which it is generally 

 assumed, — and, owing to the fact, that those, assuming 

 it, cannot give any definite idea of what they mean by 

 it. But, such prejudice cannot be extended to the per- 

 fect type, which we show. This of ours, is an individ- 

 ual in which all the characters of its species, are fully 

 and proportionately developed. It is no Platonic idea; 

 and is no more metaphysical, than the assumption of a 

 specific shape, for a truncated crystal, which, at the time, 

 falls short of that shape, in the matter of a lost edge. 



Thus, we have furnished, at least, warrant for as- 

 suming, that there is but one coordination, which is 

 normal, for each species; that, when the structural in- 

 tegrity, of any individual, is impaired, such coordination 

 is proportionally impaired; that this coordinatidn is 

 capable of restoring the lost, structural integrity; that the 

 reintegration of tissues wasted by function, that the re- 

 pair of a wound, that the reproduction of a lost member, 

 that the regain of characters lost in some preceding gen- 

 eration, and that the reproduction of a lost edge in a 

 crystal, are all merely different phases of one and the 

 same power, — i. <?., the power, of any body whose parts 

 are correlated together with reference to a definite form 

 of structure, to recomplete itself, when any of its cor- 

 related parts have, by influences ab extra, been reduced 

 or suppressed. As before intimated, we do not rely 



