The relation of the vegetable and animal to the inorganic kingdom : a lecture delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain / by William S. Savory.

  • Savory, William Scovell, 1826-1895.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The relation of the vegetable and animal to the inorganic kingdom : a lecture delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain / by William S. Savory. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    very differently described, and it is not impossible that it may vary under different circumstances. But, to say the least, in spite of strong statements to the contrary, there still exists good evidence in favour of the opinion that they may be formed by the aggregation and coalescence of granules or molecules, the minutest forms of organic matter with which we are acquainted. Now I do not wish to seek for fanciful or strained comparisons, but we know that Schwann, who in this idea was anticipated by Wolff, was struck with, and dwelt at some length upon, the resem- blance between cell development and crystalliza- tion. With our present most imperfect knowledge of the two processes, how shall we define between nutrition and crystallization ? Understand, if you please, that I am not comparing crystals with cytoblasts. Nor am I in any way attempting to establish, or even assuming, that crystallization and nutrition are alike. My object now is only to show the impracticability of drawing a distinc- tion between them, for at present we do not know in what the difference consists. Amongst the various structures of animals there are some obvious examples of growth by accretion, as in shells. The calcareous plates and spines of Ecliinodermata, the shells of Mollusca, and the solid stem or sheath of Corals, have been shown to grow by simple addition to their edges and