246 ZOOLOGICAL PHILOSOPHY 



But the earliest outlines of animal organisation, the earliest acquisi- 

 tion of a capacityfor internal development, namely, byintus-susception, 

 lastly, the earliest rudiments of the order of things and of the internal 

 movement constituting life, are formed every day under our very eyes, 

 although hitherto no attention has been paid to it, and give existence 

 to the simplest living bodies which are placed at one extremity of each 

 organic kingdom. 



It is useful to note that one of the conditions, essential to the 

 formation of these earliest outKnes of organisation, is the presence of 

 moisture and especially of water in a fluid mass. So true is it that 

 the simplest living bodies could not be formed or perpetually be 

 renewed except in the presence of moisture, that none of the in- 

 fusorians, polyps or radiarians are ever met with except in water ; 

 so that we may regard it as an undoubted fact that the animal 

 kingdom originated exclusively in this fluid. 



Let us continue the enquiry into the causes which have created the 

 earliest outlines of organisation in suitable masses, where it did not 

 nre^iously exist. 



/ If, as I have shown, hght generates heat, heat in its turn generates 

 /the vital orgasm that is produced and maintained in animals, 

 where the cause of it is not within them ; thus heat may create the 

 earhest elements of orgasm in suitable masses, which have attained 

 the earhest stages of organisation. 



When we remember that the simplest organisation needs no special 

 organ distinct from other parts of the body and adapted to a special 

 function (as is made clear by the simphfication of organisation 

 observed in many existing animals), we can conceive that such 

 organisation may be wrought in a small mass of matter which has 

 the following quahfication. 



The body that is most fitted for the reception of the first outlines of life 

 and organisation is any mass of matter apparently homogeneous, of 

 gelatinous or mucilaginous consistency, and whose parts though cohering 

 together are in a state closely resembling that of fiuids, and have only 

 enough firmness to constitute the containing parts. 



Now the subtle expansive fluids, distributed and constantly moving 

 throughout the environment, incessantly penetrate and are dispersed 

 in any such mass of matter ; in passing through it they regidate 

 the internal arrangement of its parts ; they convert it into the cellular 

 state ; and they make it fit for continually absorbing and exhaUng 

 the other environmental fiuids which may penetrate within it, and are 

 capable of being contained there. 



We have indeed to distinguish the fiuids, which penetrate Uving 

 bodies, in two categories : 



