520 The American Naturahst. [June, 
again at any time that it is placed under similar conditions, and 
in the meantime it may remain just as it was left when its growth 
ceased. This seems to me to offer a better distinction between 
the organic and inorganic than most others, viz: that when the 
force which produced the first and sustains it by constant replace- 
ment of matter ceases, it cannot again be resumed with the same 
results in the same being, but in the inorganic world this is pos- 
sible. 
Dana continues : “ (4) The living being passes through succes- 
sive stages in structure and in chemistry, from the simple germ 
to a more or less complex adult state, and finally evolves other 
germs for the continuance of the species ; instead of being equally 
perfect and equally simple in all its stages, and essentially germ- 
less.” 
It would be expected that the crystal world would be found to 
resemble more nearly the less organized end of the organic 
world, and we should look for analogies to the simple amcebas. 
These are but drops of jelly in their simplest forms, which grow 
in size by absorption of what passes through them, and which 
break up into fragments, each of which becomes a new nucleus 
for a similar organism. 
If these be considered germs, then the detached fragments of 
a large crystal which form new nuclei of similar crystals in a 
solution containing the materials out of which the chemical 
substance necessary to their being is obtained, are also germs. It 
is well to recall also that, though there may be innumerable other 
substances in the same solution than those entering into the for- 
mula of the crystallizing mineral, these latter will be excluded, 
and those which are necessary will be assimilated as truly as the 
stomach of animals or the organs of plants assimilate their 
nutriment. 
In the more special distinctions which this author makes be- 
tween plants and animals, there is nothing to arrest the conclu- 
sions which seem forced upon us by a consideration of the above 
general characteristics. These distinctions have relation to the 
absorption by the plant of carbonic id, and by the animal of 
oxygen; of manufacturing organic ir for the animal, by the 
