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“ For division (which is all that a mill, or pestle, or any other body, does upon another, in reducing it to insensible parts) can never take away either solidity, extension, figure, or mobility from any body, but only makes two or more distinct separate masses of matter, of that which was but one before ; all which distinct masses, reckoned as so many distinct bodies, after division, make a certain number. These I call original or primary qualities of body, which I think we may observe to produce simple ideas in us, viz. solidity, extension, figure, motion or rest, and number. ”

“ Thus, each vegetable, animal, and plant is referable to some province of the human body, and thereby to a corresponding province of the soul, as each invention belongs to some province of human arms, and human wants or wills. For the series runs inwards by many moments, and triple graduations, to the central complex or unit, which corresponds, and offers the series, to the form and mechanism immediately above it, or the unseen soul of the centre, and sun of the extended system. In this way there is a primary correspondence between souls and bodies ”

“ Does Structure originate Function, or does Function originate Structure? is a question about which there has been disagreement. Using the word Function in its widest signification, as the totality of all vital actions, the question amounts to this—does Life produce Organization, or does Organization produce Life? ”

“ The integration and differentiation of vital function on the one hand, and the preparation and composition of food-material on the other hand, form—as we will become fully aware further on—the two great divisions in the subject-matter of the science of organization, divisions corresponding to the fundamental biplicity of all advanced organization, its animal and its vegetative life. Organization in the sphere of animal life is the expression of the development of manifold outside relations in the vital unit. ”

“ If, as an alternative, this peculiar subordination of traits which organic forms display be ascribed to design, other difficulties suggest themselves. To suppose that a certain plan of organization was fixed on by a Creator for each vast and varied group, the members of which were to have many different modes of life, and that he bound himself to adhere rigidly to this plan, even in the most aberrant forms of the group where some other plan would have been more appropriate, is to ascribe a very strange motive. ”

“ Vital forces, or the vital force, if we adopt the term for brevity’s sake, is a symbol of the conditions of existence of organized matter; and since organisms are specially distinguishable from anorganisms by this speciality of their synthesis, and not by any difference in the nature of the elements combined, this state of organization is the “force” or “principle” of which we are in quest. To determine what Life means, we must observe and classify the phenomena presented by living beings. ”

“ Rightly understood, the doctrines of Protoplasm, of Gemmules, et id omne genus, if they aid little, can do little harm. For, to the physiologist, there remains the great fact that organization is life. In, through, and by means of organization, or, if you prefer it, an organism, is matter endowed with life. So far as physiology, and therefore natural science and physics, is concerned in this matter, life does not exist without organization. ”

“ Nothing can be more superficial than such a mode of classification; and if these groups actually exist in Nature, they must be based, like all the other divisions, upon some combination of structural characters peculiar to them. We have seen that Branches are founded upon the general plan of structure, Classes on the mode of executing the plan, Orders upon the greater or less complication of a given mode of execution, and we shall find that form, as determined by structure, characterizes Families. ”

“ In the most general case, that, as we have said, of the derivation of plants and animals from one another, the latent organization is either itself similar to the old organization, or has the power of communicating to new matter the old organic form. ”

“ In passing through these organs of sense and percipient centres, the like groups of forces are segregated, or separated from the unlike groups of forces; and each such differentiated and integrated series of groups of forces, answering to an external genus or species, constitutes a state of consciousness which we call our idea of the genus or species. We before saw that as well as a separation of mixed matters by the same force, there is a separation of mixed forces by the same matter ”

“ If the number of different parts in an aggregate must determine the number of differentiations produced in the energies passing through it—if the distinctness of these parts from one another, must involve distinctness in their reactions, and therefore distinctness between the divisions of the differentiated energy; there cannot but be a complete parallelism between the development of structure and the development of function. If structure advances from the simple and general to the complex and special, function must do the same. ”

“ This differentiation of functions implies a corresponding differentiation of organs, but it is functional differentiation which always takes the lead. "Where division of labour has not been introduced into the organism there must exist a great simplicity of structure. But just as uniformity in the functions of the different parts of the body implies a uniformity in their mode of constitution, so diversity in function must be accompanied by particularities in structure ”

“ The degree of development within each type is quite independent of the peculiar plan of structure, which forms the basis of the type and gives it a special characteristic. The “type” is determined by the peculiar relations in position of the most important parts of the body, and the manner in which the organs are connected. The degree of development, however, is dependent upon the greater or less division of labour among organs, and on the differentiation of the plastids and organs. ”

“ The separation of form and function is an abstraction, as is that of matter and motion; we cannot suppose the connection of particular functions with particular forms,—particular organization,—to be accidental, any more than we can suppose the particular properties of particular inorganic composites and elements to be accidental or these particular properties to be without result in the organic matter into which the particular composites and elements are taken up. ”

“ Where the regulative organization is anywhere made to undertake additional functions, we shall not form sanguine anticipations on the strength of immediate results of the desired kind; but we shall suspect that, after the phase of early activity has passed by, the plasticity of the new structure will rapidly diminish, the characteristic tendency toward rigidity will begin to show itself, and in place of a progressive effect there will come a restrictive effect. ”

“ From which we infer that all structures, which distinguish the several grades of organisation in modern classifications, soft parts and hard parts alike, may come into existence together, in so far as they are compatible with each other, in any class or ordinal division of animals. ”

“ We must here consider the facts of function in a manner parallel to that in which we have, in the foregoing Part, considered the facts of structure. As, hitherto, we have concerned ourselves with those most general phenomena of organic form which, holding irrespective of class and order and sub-kingdom, illustrate the processes of integration and differentiation characterizing Evolution at large ”

“ There is an organization common to the system, and one peculiar to each of its divisions. It is the same in regard to its life; there is a life common to the system, and as many peculiar ones as there are parts to which it is extended. ”

“ For, in the first place, it is obvious that there is a tendency to the production of a determinate type of structure; which type is often not merely that of the species, but some special modification of it which characterized one or both of the progenitors. ”

“ We cannot, for example, isolate a single domain of science in a particular country and at a particular time—say, [ 56 ] mechanics in England in the eighteenth century—and hope to make of it a thoroughly complete object of study. ”

“ What interpretation is to be put on these truths of classification? We find that organic forms admit of an arrangement everywhere indicating the fact, that along with certain attributes, certain other attributes, which are not directly connected with them, always exist. How are we to account for this fact? And how are we to account for the fact that the attributes possessed in common by the largest assemblages of forms, are the most vitally-important attributes? ”

“ In plants causations are organized as generations as well as forces and forms and kinds. In animals concepts are organized as well as causations, forces, forms and kinds. In every one of these systems there is a special differentiation and integration of organs; so the entire body is organized in a hierarchy of organs. ”

“ But in justice to those who maintain the precedence of structure, it must be added that function, which, as we hold, is anterior to structure, nevertheless, regarded as an activity modified and different from what it was, assumes its differential, distinguishing characters only in proportion as the adaptation becomes perfect, and as equilibrium is established between that portion of internal reaction which it represents and the external action which it withstands. ”

“ Not only has the order in which the facts of organization and life successively manifest themselves, from the first germ of existence to death, been found to be uniform, and very accurately ascertainable; but, by a great application of the Method of Concomitant Variations to the entire facts of comparative anatomy and physiology, the characteristic organic structure corresponding to each class of functions has been determined with considerable precision. ”

“ Functional structure may be formed either in the first or in the second period of development, may be either inherited or acquired, but it reaches its full differentiation only in the second period, i.e., under the influence of functioning. Practically speaking, functional structure is directly dependent for its full development and for its continued conservation upon the exercise of the particular function which it serves. ”

“ We are shown, too, that whatever be the natures of the complex forces emanating from each, it will, as a matter of course, happen that the power of each will be relatively great in its own neighbourhood and become gradually smaller in parts increasingly remote: making more comprehensible the autogenous character of each local structure. ”

“ Yet, still we have a body without organization. Light exerts its mysterious powers, and the same elements assume an organized form; and, in addition to the recognized agencies, we dimly perceive others on which [Pg 359] vitality evidently depends. ”

“ Now, matter being taken first, it is proper that it should be reasonably anatomised and divided; and the division commonly in vogue is that into four kinds—namely (1) necessary matter; (2) contingent necessary matter; (3) contingent unnecessary matter; (4) impossible matter. ”

“ Serially homologous structures, borne on the same body, are commonly differentiated into sets, the mean character of a set produced in one part of the body, or during one period of life, differing from the mean character of a set produced in a different region or at a different time. Such differentiation may be measured by determining the correlation between the position or the time of production and the character of the organs produced, the methods by which the correlation is measured being those described in the article Error, Law of. ”

“ Throughout all these variations of proportion, we trace the persistence of the same laws, which regulate the formation of living genera, and from the combinations of perfect mechanism that have, in all times, resulted from their operation, we infer the perfection of the wisdom by which all this mechanism was designed, and the immensity of the power by which it has ever been upheld. ”

“ The third formation remaineth and that is the voluntary one, that is, an unseen force described as the Ancient Power, causeth these elements to come together, every formation giving rise to a distinct being. ”

“ We commence our present division—and shall follow the like course with the others—with its higher forms, and, proceeding in descending order, shall in each conclude with those humble rudimentary forms in which the rigid divisions of classification are obliterated, and the only differences which can be assigned are, at best, but little more than arbitrary. ”

“ In the case of a present material object, there is no doubt as to the answer: order and co-existence come from an organ of sense, receiving the impression of an external object. This organ is constructed precisely with a view to allowing a plurality of simultaneous excitants to impress it in a certain order and in a certain way, by distributing themselves, all at one time, over selected portions of its surface. ”

“ The changes by which this structureless mass becomes a structured mass, having the characters and powers possessed by what we call an organism, are changes through which its parts lose their original likenesses, and do this while assuming the unlike kinds of activity for which their respective positions toward one another and surrounding things fit them. These differences of function, and consequent differences of structure, at first feebly marked, slight in degree, and few in kind, become, as organization progresses, definite and numerous ”