JS4 DEFINITIONS. 



independent existence. Besides, if life be supposed to be 

 superadded to a body at some particular time, it follows 

 that previous to that period the body must have been a 

 mass of inert matter. Now though this might have been 

 the case when the species was first created, every obser- 

 vation at present shows that the ovum has a vegetative 

 existence from its very first formation in the ovarium, and 

 fully possesses that faculty which we have termed life. In 

 observing one of the least perfect of animals, such as a po- 

 lype, we find life propagated solely by cuttings or sponta- 

 neous fission. There is nothing that resembles a new 

 life ; we merely witness a division of that which already 

 existed, and conclude that there is every probability of 

 all the animals of the particular species so multiplied, 

 being, like the grafts of an apple tree, merely the con- 

 tinuation of one individual. Even in the most perfect 

 animals the ovum is separated from the parent stock by 

 spontaneous fission, and though incapable of generating 

 immediately other ova, is in other respects a mass of cel- 

 lular tissue, organized in a degree quite as perfect as are 

 the Infusoria. The above remarks apply with equal truth 

 to vegetables ; and it may be said that there is a life in all 

 organized beings, which is merely a continuation of that 

 originally imparted to each of the. species. It is the life 

 of the unimpregnated ovum and seed, and the only sort of 

 life which the lowest tribes of plants and animals can 

 possess. It is the common property of the species, which 

 for a time is deposited with every individual. 



22. But there is a second degree of material life pecu- 

 liar to the more perfect plants and animals, namely, that 

 whereby various organs are constantly forming in the body. 



