280 ZOOLOGICAL PHILOSOPHY 



special organ for performing acts of intelligence can only have simple 

 perceptions of the objects which affect them, but can form no idea 

 of them, do not make comparisons or judgments, and are guided in 

 all their actions by their habitual needs and inclinations. 



Summary of Part II. 



By confining myself in the nine preceding chapters solely to the 

 observations with which I was concerned, I have avoided entering 

 into a quantity of details which are doubtless very interesting, but 

 may be found in the good works on physiology already accessible 

 to the public : the principles which I have advanced appear to me 

 sufficient to prove : 



1. That Ufe in every body which possesses it consists only of an 

 order and state of things, by which the internal parts can be influenced 

 by an exciting cause and perform movements called organic or vital, 

 from which are produced according to the species the recognised 

 phenomena of organisation ; 



2. That the exciting cause of vital movements is external to the 

 organs of all living bodies ; that the elements of this cause are always 

 found, although in varying abundance, wherever there is Ufe ; that it 

 is provided to Hving bodies by the environment either in whole or 

 part ; and that without this same cause no such body could possess 

 Ufe; 



3. That every Uving body whatever is necessarily composed of two 

 kinds of parts, viz. : containing parts consisting of a very supple 

 cellular tissue, in which and out of which every kind of organ has been 

 formed ; and visible contained fluids capable of moving about and of 

 undergoing various changes in their condition and nature ; 



4. That animal nature does not differ essentially from vegetable 

 nature as regards the special organs of these two kinds of Uving bodies, 

 but chiefly as regards the nature of the substances of which they are 

 composed : for the substance of every animal body is such that the 

 exciting cause can estabUsh in it an energetic orgasm and irritabiUty ; 

 whereas the substance of all vegetable bodies merely gives the exciting 

 cause the power of setting in motion the visible contained fluids, while 

 only permitting in the containing parts of a faint orgasm, not enough 

 to produce irritabiUty or to cause any sudden movements by the parts ; 

 / 5. That nature herself produces direct or so-called spontaneous 

 generations by creating organisation and Ufe in bodies which did not 

 previously possess them ; that she must of necessity have this faculty 

 in the case of the most imperfect animals and plants at the beginning 

 of the animal and vegetable scales, and also perhaps of some of their 

 branches ; and that she only performs this strange phenomenon in 



