Volume 4

Descriptive and illustrated catalogue of the physiological series of comparative anatomy contained in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London / [By R. Owen].

  • Royal College of Surgeons of England. Museum.
Date:
1833-40
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Descriptive and illustrated catalogue of the physiological series of comparative anatomy contained in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London / [By R. Owen]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    CATALOGUE GALLERY. Division II. CONTINUATION OF THE SPECIES IN PLANTS AND ANIMALS. Subdivision I. ORGANS OF GENERATION. “ Of the Reproduction of Vegetables and Animals. “ The power of reproduction or continuing the species out of itself, while itself exists, is peculiar to the vegetable and the animal. A plant has the power of producing out of itself a new plant, and an animal has the power of producing out of itself a new animal; but minerals have not been found to possess this property ; for a mineral is only a com- pound, and before it can produce anything else it must be itself decom- posed, and may go into the composition of a thousand other minerals*. By this power of reproduction, a succession of vegetables and animals * [Or rather it is only the compound unorganized substances that can present a semblance of the re- production of another body by decomposition and a new arrangement of the elementary parts.] B