Arcana of Nature (Volume 1); Or, the History and Laws of Creation (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1864. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... artificial means, it should also be of the lowest type; whereas, in the famous experiments of these students, a being comparatively high in the scale of existence was supposed to have been produced. This fact alone is sufficient to negate their experiments and their resulting inferences. 160. But there can be no reason why the lowest forms of life should not be originated by artificial means. If the essential conditions are understood and conformed to, it will be readily seen from foregoing principles, that life can be as readily eliminated as the crystal. Failure must be expected in the commencement, from the unknown realm which such experiments explore. But success will follow in the exact ratio to the knowledge acquired. CHAPTER VI. PLAN OF ORGANIC BEINGS. Blending of all organic Beings in the Cell. -- Vegetable and animal Lines of Advanee. -- Embryonic Growth. -- Four Archetypes of Creation.-- Four Types of the Vertebrata. -- The Plan of living Beings. 161. Infinite as are the variations in specific organic life, one great plan or archetype prevails, to which all conform. Specific distinctions are departures, in a greater or less degree, from this Grand Archetype. A still greater variation is called Generic; a still greater Class, and the greatest of all, Kingdom. The lowest and Universal Archetype is the Cell. The cell is the lowest form of life, yet it combines the essence of all forms. It is the fundamental r material from which all living beings are created. Bone, sinew, muscle, brain, all are the product of the union of cells. The great subdivisions of natural history arise from the difference of aggregation the cell assumes. In their wide divergence from the primitive type, it is easy to draw the distinctions of class; but in their point of contact, di...