270 



ON ORGANIZATION 



create, but to continue the specific character already 

 created ; and as that specific character can alone de- 

 pend on the difference in combination, in propor- 

 tion, in quantity, and in position of the few ingre- 

 dients of which all are composed, there can be no 

 difficulty, we apprehend, in forming an idea of such a 

 structure of the organs, as may fit them for being 

 mechanically and chemically employed in the assi- 

 milation and deposition of food, for the continuance 

 of life, and reproduction of the species. 



Dr Barclay does not seem to me to have suffi- 

 ciently attended to this important circumstance. He 

 appears to hold the opinion, that the origin of the 

 animal foetus, is an unorganized fluid, with a little ac- 

 tive being inclosed in it, which forms the organs. But 

 that the animal rudiment is a fluid, is by no means 

 clear ; the presumptions, to my mind, lie quite the 

 other way. The thing itself, of which this is the 

 origin, is not fluid, but solid ; and all our ideas con- 

 nected with its nature, relate to solid body. That it 

 is immersed in fluid, is true ; this is a wise provision 

 for preserving it in safety. In plants, where in many 

 cases it must be scattered by the winds to become 

 productive, the pollen is a dry solid body, which flies 

 like dust ; but in that case, nature has provided a 

 fluid in the pistil, to facilitate its passage into the 

 interior of the seed-vessel. If any thing on this 

 subject admits of being concluded upon as certain, 

 it seems to me to be the proposition, that in the 

 animal, as well as in the vegetable tribes, the parent 



