187 
These have again special relations to the rays of light ; and 
disclose under the microscope objects of marvellous beauty to 
the human eye, which never can have beheld them till our 
generation. 
43. I must claim, as one of the pieces justificatives * of my 
argument, the admirable address by Dr. Russell to the Chemical 
Section of the British Association, Sept. 18th, 1873. The for- 
mation of Alizarine to take the place of madder, as there de- 
scribed, was strictly in accordance with the guidance of the 
atomic theory. An important manufacture has thus been 
established, and thousands of acres liberated for purposes more 
useful to man. 
44. When the Biologists have done, I will not say as much, 
but when, in following out their theories, they have succeeded 
in creating one of the least of the creatures that plagued the 
Egyptians, I shall consider those theories worth examination. 
45. Another point of very manifest and obvious contrast 
between crystallization and life is the character of the unifica- 
tion. In the crystal this is simply aggregation, the form being 
the result of forces which bind together molecule to molecule. 
Each part of a crystal might be removed, and the last portion 
would be as much crystal as the whole was as the beginning. 
As in the brick wall to which I have referred, brick by brick 
might be removed until only two bricks remained united 
together, but the character of their union would still be that of 
the entire structure. 
46. But it is not so in an organized body. Here there 
is union of parts, all working together for the good of the 
whole. It may be compared with the oneness of an army, in 
which all the divisions are ordered by one ruling mind,— unseen 
it may be, but all-operative ; and banding together all the 
soldiers into one harmonious unity of action. If in action 
one portion of the army is hardly pressed upon, orders are 
given by the commander for another corps to move to its 
support. So, it is most familiar to the cultivator of plants, 
that he has to do with an organized structure ; and he takes his 
measures accordingly. So with the physician, who in the same 
manner calculates his resources for aiding the self-healing and 
self-sustaining power, the vis medicatrix nature; which is, 
after all, chiefly to be relied upon for the preservation of the 
creature. 
* Another of these will be found in the beautiful researches of Dr. Hoff- 
mann, and specially in his recent formation of cumarine, “ by displacement 
of atoms in the molecules.” 
