FORM AND AGGREGATION 
TIEDEMANS PHYSIOLOGY 
OF MAN. 
®N THE EXTERNAL CONFIGURATION AND IN" 
TERNAL AGGREGATION. 
(Continued from page 53.) 
Crystals do not exhibit, in their form and 
aggregation changes that can be considered 
as the results of development or of the epochs 
of age ; they suffer no change whose cause is 
inherent, and dependent on their duration. 
XLIII. All organic bodies, nlants as well 
as animals, in their figure and aggregation, 
possess a certain duration, varying considera- 
bly, according to the genera, soecies, and in- 
dividuals, but which, notwithstanding, de- 
pends chiefly on circumstances inherent in 
themselves. The duration of the form and 
aggregation of inorganic bodies, crystals for 
instance, is not confined to any determinate 
period ; when they are destroyed it is by the 
efl’ect of extrinsic circumstances. 
XLIV. The origin and production of new 
organic forms of a species is the result of 
manifestations of activity in forms already , 
existing. These manifestations of activity, 
which are called generation, are not the ef- 
fects of chemical affinity and cohesion, but 
of a peculiar power, appertaining to organic 
bodies, exhibited, with specific modifications, 
in the different species of living bodies, pro- 
pagated or diffused through the product 
during the act of generation, and directing 
the form and aggregation of it, in such a 
manner that none but beings of the same 
kind are produced and formed. 
The production of new crystalline forms, on 
the contrary, supposes the destruction, the 
annihilation, the solution in a liquid, of cry- 
stals already existing. Such new crystalliz- 
ed forms, developed as they are according 
to the simple laws of affinity and cohesion, at 
the expense of former materials dissolved in a 
liquid, may differ considerably. Indeed, the 
researches of Mitscherlich'^ have taught that a 
body composed of the same principles, in the 
same proportions, is capable of assuming 
different forms. The crystalline form, there- 
fore, does not depend on the nature of the 
atoms, but on their number and mode of ag- 
gregation. The same number of atoms, united 
in a similar manner, produce one ami the same 
crystalline form. 
XLV. The form and aggregation of organic 
bodies can only subsist and enjoy a certain 
duration on condition of a reciprocity of ac- 
tion with external things, and more especially 
on that of a continual change which is going 
on in their material substance. All organic 
bodies take from everything around them, and 
attract the constituent princiiffes of the air 
water, and food, which they introduce into 
their composition and form. At the same 
time divers matters are eleminating form, 
their composition and form. It is only so 
long as this change and reftewal takes place 
in the materials, that they continue in the 
form and aggregation peculiar to them. 
« Konigl. Vetens. Acad. Handling, 1821, p 4. 
OF INORGANIC BODIES. 85 
On the other hand, the existence and per 
manency of the form and aggregation of in- 
organic bodies, crystals for example, suppose 
their composition to be in absolute repose, 
and that no change whatever occurs in them. 
If external things, which have a greater affini- 
ty with their materials, should acton them, 
they combine with them according to the laws 
of affinity, and thence follows the destruction 
and annihilation of their form and aggregation. 
A renewal of matter, therefore, a thing abso- 
lutely necessary to the subsistence of organic 
bodies, exerts a destructive action on inorga- 
nic bodies. 
XL VI. From the parallel which has been 
established between the form and aggregation 
of organic and those of inorganic bodies, essen- 
tial differences are collected. Ail organic 
bodies have a regular form, terminated by 
undulating lines and surfaces w'hich are not 
flat. They all proceed from an assemblage 
of heterogeneous parts, both liquid and solid, 
hai ing a peculiar mode of arrangement and 
distribution, and connected so as to produce 
an harmonious whole ; in other words, engag- 
ed in a reciprocity of action necessary to the 
preservation of the individual. The form and 
aggregation sway each other mutually ; the 
destruction of one leads to that of the other. 
All organized bodies preserve their form and 
aggregation by virtue of an internal activity, 
under the influence of external circumstances, 
and amid incessant changes in their material 
substance of their composition. They are 
developed from each other, produce them- 
selves, are formed and maintained by their 
own activity, are subject to regular changes, 
and enjoy a certain durability. 
These bodies thus constitute separate be- 
ings, whose various parts, with their different 
qualities, have a configuration and an aggre- 
gation of such a nature that unity, harmony, 
occurrence of actions to a common end, the 
pre.servation of the individual and of the 
species, may, and in fact do, follow as results. 
They are relatively more perfect than inor- 
ganic bodies.* This superiority of relative 
* Absolute perfection belongs to every being 
whatsoever, since each one is what it ought to be 
according- to the laws of nature. But the differ- 
ent groups of beings present differences as to 
relative perfection. Bonnet (Contemplation de 
la Nature, vol ii. cap. 2) has very clearly ex- 
pressed himself on this subject, in the following 
manner : “ Tons les etres sont parfaits, con- 
sideres en eux-memes ; tons repondeut a une fin. 
Les determinations, ou les qualites propres a 
chaque etre, sont les moyens relatifs a cette fin- 
Si ces determinations changeoient, elles ne 
seroient plus en rapport avec la fin et il n’y 
aurait plus de sagesse. Mais a une fin plus 
noble repondentles moyens plusreleves. L’etre 
appelle k reiiiplir cette fin est enrichi de facultes 
qvii hii sont assorties. Consider es sous ce point 
de vue, les etres nous offrent dilferens degres de 
perfection relative. La mesure de cette perfec- 
tion est dans les rapports que chaqu' etre soutient 
avec le tout. L etre dont les rapports au tout 
sont plus varies, plus multiplies, plus feconds, 
possede une perfection plus relevee.” We ap- 
preciate the relative perfection of an organized 
body by the multiplicity, the diversity, and the 
development of its parts. Whenever we observe 
a gi-eac diversity in the organic conformation, we 
also uniformly see a great variety and combina- 
tiou in the juanifestation of life. 
