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precisely same results follow from whatever source you derive the material ; 
in results determined by the existence of some germ or seed derived from a 
previously organized individual, and which determines the formation of a 
similar organism, there is an essential difference which is invariably found 
to exist between organic and inorganic force. 
Mr. David Howard, F.C.S. — There is one point I wish to call attention to, 
which I think may somewhat assist the very clear exposition we have in this 
paper ; that is, the curious way in which crystallisation seems to touch life — 
always from below. In very many cases life produces crystallized bodies, but I 
think one may safely say it is merely the result of destruction, the result of 
waste, or of secretion ; it is after life that crystallization comes. Chemistry 
can do wonderful things in producing crystalline bodies. Take, for example, 
the acid of grapes. Till recently it was supposed to be purely the result of 
organized life, but chemists have shown that it may be produced from coal- 
gas. Now, though coal-gas is of organic origin, it is a lifeless thing, and the 
result is not the result of organic process. We never can produce the self- 
developing cell ; we never can produce the independent molecular action 
which we call life. As has been very clearly put, while the crystallization 
of any crystalline body is the same to the minutest point, however it may 
differ to the ordinary eye, the structure of an organic substance is very 
different. In the case of crystals, to mathematicians the variations of 
crystallization are simply modifications of the same mathematical form, that 
may be produced with the most perfect accuracy from one to the other. It 
is wonderful to see a good crystallographer take a piece of a crystal and from 
that deduce the form of a perfect crystal. Even the smallest fragment is 
sufficient. But there is nothing like that in life. The same general form is 
seen to recur in living organisms, but there is no absolute mathematical 
identity. The more one studies crystallography, and sees the extreme sim- 
plicity of forms and the extreme richness of the developments of life, the 
more marked the difference becomes. Great as the triumphs of modern 
chemistry are, there is no way of infringing the boundaries of life between 
organic and inorganic matters, but they are left even more marked. What- 
ever the distinction between life and want of life, between life and inanimate 
nature, it is even more forcibly marked now than ever. 
The Rev. R. Thornton, D.D. — I think it would be a great pity that we 
should not get all we can out of Mr. Howard ; I am therefore going to ask a 
question which I have no doubt he will be able and willing to answer. I 
wish him to tell us his opinion about the experiments of Dr. Bastian. I was 
somewhat surprised at the paper read by that gentleman at the meeting of the 
British Association in 1871, on the “Formation of Bacteria in Animal Fluids.” 
His statement was that these fluids were placed in glass tubes which were 
hermetically sealed, and then exposed to the light of the sun or to heat, when 
it was invariably found that bacteria had been formed. We must remem _ 
ber that the theory of Sir Wm. Thompson had not then been given to the 
world, and Dr. Bastian was evidently unacquainted with it. He stated 
that he had repeated his experiments again and again, and in every case 
VOL. VIII. Q 
