199 
that which at first seems but an exudation from the heart-wood 
of the tree — the only indispensable requisite being that the 
cambium* or living part, should not have been removed, and 
that the surface should be protected from undue evaporation. 
We see how wonderfully nature “formifies” the part, adding 
by degrees that which is necessary, as the spiculse or fibres ; and 
<{ vacuolating ” or forming channels for the conduct of the 
milk-sap of the plant. The spiral and reticular vessels are the 
first indication of the intention (so to speak) of the plant to 
throw out either branches or roots, to find some means of 
replacing its loss; and the crystals, which are in no way the 
result of vegetation, but form after the bark is stripped from 
the tree, show the mathematically correct structure I have 
dwelt upon ; so different from the free and varied forms re- 
sulting from life.J 
Organism, 
85. In describing this, in the work cited, I have said u that 
I place no faith in any of the theories of vegetation which 
isolate the different parts of the plants; but I agree with 
Kant, in what seems to me a clear definition, that i( the cause of 
the particular mode of existence of a living body resides in the 
whole,” and with Muller, from whose Physiology I quote, 
that “ there is in living or organic matter a principle constantly 
in action, the operations of which are in accordance with a ra- 
tional plan , so that the individual parts which it creates in the 
body are adapted to the design of the whole, and this it is which 
distinguishes organism «” 
86. It is certainly to be desired that the words organic and 
organize should be carefully applied. It is difficult to under- 
stand in what sense they are used by some “ thinkers ” of the 
present era. 
87. Hutton, in his day, suggested that the earth might be 
tc considered as an organized body ” “ having a constitution in 
which the necessary decay of the machine is naturally repaired, 
in the exertion of those productive powers by which it had been 
formed .” This exercise of the philosophical imagination was 
scarcely appreciated by his contemporaries ; perhaps it is re- 
served for our descendants to look upon the earth as really a 
living creature. 
88. But what am I to make of the expression u organic 
* Compare with the plates in the above volume, the cambium in Dr. 
Beale’s Life Theories, plate II. fig. 1, the layer (c) “ containing bone-forming 
pjroplasts, for an interesting analogy between vegetable and animal formation, 
t Compare the diagrams in the preceding pages 197 and 198. 
X See the work referred to, now in the Library of the Instit ute. 
VOL. VTir. p 
