WHENCE CAME WATER ^ORGANIC MATTER? A LIMIT TO PHILOSOPHY, 15 
Although we cannot here also answer the 
question, whence came the water and the 
organic matter which it contained, yet this 
hypothesis is the one which accords best with 
the facts with which geology has latterly been 
enriched. In fact, we find no organized j30- 
dies belonging to what is called the primitive 
world in the strata of earths which modern 
geologists consider as the products of fire or of 
vulcanism. They are only observed in the 
upper layers of the earth, in those of the 
latest formation, and in the soils which have 
evidently been precipitated in the midst of 
the waters. Aquatic animals existed before 
terestrial animals. An argument which fa- 
vours the hypothesis according to which the 
organic kingdom has been gradually developed 
and elevated from simple to more complicated 
forms, is drawn from the fact that we meet 
with remains of organic bodies belonging to 
the most simple species in the secondary and 
more ancient soils, whilst the most recent 
strata of the earth contain the remains of more 
complicated living bodies. The soils which 
rest directly on primitive rocks, present frag- 
ments of corals, radiated anirnals, and shells. 
It is only after these that remains of vertebrat- 
ed animals, fishes, reptiles, and cetacea, are 
found in the water. Fossil bones of oviparous 
animals exist in the deep strata of the earth, 
whereas the viviparous mammiferm are met 
within the superficial layers. We observe 
the same in the organic complication of vege- 
tables, whose remains are contained in the 
different layers of the earth.- Impressions of 
cotyledonous plants, espOcially of ferns, are 
the first vegetable traces met with in the_ deep 
seated strata. Then come the remains of 
monocotyledonous plant, of arborescent gra- 
mina, of palms, &c., and finally those of the 
coniferse and other dicotyledonous plants. 
There have not yet been found any fossils 
belonging to apes or man, whose organization 
has reached the highest degree of complica- 
tion and development. _ We may therefore ad- 
mit, with great probability, that apes and men 
are the last and the newest products of our 
planet. 
* An additional argument in favour of this hy- 
pothesis, is the fact that whenever animal matter 
shall have lost thait power which gave and main- 
tained it in a higher degree of complic&tion in 
form and functions— no matter how high this 
degree— it invariably returns to the most simple 
forms. The noble human form, after the cessa- 
tion of the functions, possesses only sufficient 
plasticity to take on the shape of the lowest insects 
and worms. The same applies to the kingly 
lion of the forest and the soaring eagle. In fact , 
the matter composing each of these, after death, 
is in the same state as the matter which is des- 
cribed by Tiedemann as possessing merely the 
aptitude for life, and therefore taking on only 
the most simple form. Again, that external cir- 
cumstances modify structure, is very well as- 
certained. The absence of light generally causes 
a mother to produce a defoi* *med child, as Edwards 
observed in females confined in dungeons, whilst, 
tadpoles, preserved from the light, became huge 
tadpoles instead of frogs. Natives of different 
climes have different parts of their organization 
prominently in action ; the muscular system, for 
instance, is much more developed in cold than 
warm climates ; on the other hand, natives of 
the tropics are from birth more excitable than 
XXIV. Another circumstance favourable 
to the hypothesis of the gradual development 
of organic bodies, from the most simple to 
the most complicated, is that all those bodies, 
as well vegetables as animals,to this day appear 
in a simple form, at the period of generation, 
or when they proceed from the germ, and that 
it is only by degrees they acquire the most 
complex form peculiar to each species. To 
commence in a very simple manner, and to rise 
thence to the complicated, is the general cha- 
racter of every thing that has life, as wel I of in- 
dividuals as of the entire of the organic kingdom. 
XXV. These reasons, coupled with the fact 
that, after the extinction of the life of indivi- 
duals, the materials of organized bodies are 
reduced to the most simple organic forms by 
the action of what is called spontaneous gene- 
ration, oblige us to admit a primitive organic 
matter extended on the surface, or in the crust 
and waters of our planet, concerning the first 
origin of which matter it is as possible for us 
to certify any thing as on that of the planet 
itself. This organic matter, with its differ- 
ent organic modifications, considered as mat- 
ters of a peculiar species, sometimes is seen 
active and living in the individuals of vegetable 
and animal species actually existing, under 
conditions and in the midst of phenomena, the 
recital of which will be made hereafter ; at 
other times remains merely capable of en- 
joying life, and endued with the faculty of 
taking on in certain circumstances, the most 
simple organic forms, whenever it has been 
withdrawn from the composition of living bo- 
dies. 
Several naturalists, particularly Bnffpn ^ 
and Needham,-}- have allowed the existence 
of a matter peculiar to living bodies. G. R. 
d’reviranusf concludes from his researches on 
life. 
1 . That there is in nature a matter which 
is ever moving, by which all living beings, from 
the byssus to the palm, and from the infusoi-ia 
animalculse to the sea monster, possess life, 
and which, though immutable in its essence, is 
notwithstanding variable in its form, and is 
incessantly changing it, 
2. That this matter is deprived of form in 
itself, but nevertheless ready to take that of 
life ; that it maintains a determinate form un- 
der the influence of external causes ; that it 
only continues in that form so long as these 
causes are active, and that it takes another 
so soon as new causes influence it. 
those of northern parts of the globe ; in other 
words, the animal nervous apparatus is more 
developed. In a pure hypothesis it is not expect- 
ed that the modus operand! of the circumstances 
to which Tiedemann alludes should be explained ; 
collateral evidence is certainly in favour of it, — 
Transl. 
* Hist. Nat., vol. ii. p- 420. II existe une 
matifere organique animee, universellement re- 
pendue dans toutes les substances animales ou 
vegetables, qui sert egalement aleur nutrition, Et 
leur developperaent, et a leur reproduction. 
+ An Account of some new Microscopical Dis- 
coveries. London, 1745, in 8vo. 
■]: Biologic, vol. ii. pp 267 and 403. 
