登陆注册
5228800000075

第75章 IV(8)

As we have seen Nature anticipating the plasterer in fibro-cartilage, so we see her beforehand with the glassblower in her dealings with the cell. The artisan blows his vitreous bubbles, large or small, to be used afterwards as may be wanted. So Nature shapes her hyaline vesicles and modifies them to serve the needs of the part where they are found. The artisan whirls his rod, and his glass bubble becomes a flattened disk, with its bull's-eye for a nucleus. These lips of ours are all glazed with microscopic tiles formed of flattened cells, each one of them with its nucleus still as plain and relatively as prominent, to the eye of the microscopist, as the bull's-eye in the old-fashioned windowpane. Everywhere we find cells, modified or unchanged. They roll in inconceivable multitudes (five millions and more to the cubic millimetre, according to Vierordt) as blood-disks through our vessels. A close-fitting mail of flattened cells coats our surface with a panoply of imbricated scales (more than twelve thousand millions, as Harting has computed, as true a defence against our enemies as the buckler of the armadillo or the carapace of the tortoise against theirs. The same little protecting organs pave all the great highways of the interior system. Cells, again, preside over the chemical processes which elaborate the living fluids; they change their form to become the agents of voluntary and involuntary motion; the soul itself sits on a throne of nucleated cells, and flashes its mandates through skeins of glassy filaments which once were simple chains of vesicles. And, as if to reduce the problem of living force to its simplest expression, we see the yolk of a transparent egg dividing itself in whole or in part, and again dividing and subdividing, until it becomes a mass of cells, out of which the harmonious diversity of the organs arranges itself, worm or man, as God has willed from the beginning.

This differentiation having been effected, each several part assumes its special office, having a life of its own adjusted to that of other parts and the whole. "Just as a tree constitutes a mass arranged in a definite manner, in which, in every single part, in the leaves as in the root, in the trunk as in the blossom, cells are discovered to be the ultimate elements, so is it also with the forms of animal life. Every animal presents itself as a sum of vital unities, every one of which manifests all the characteristics of life."

The mechanism is as clear, as unquestionable, as absolutely settled and universally accepted, as the order of movement of the heavenly bodies, which we compute backward to the days of the observatories on the plains of Shinar, and on the faith of which we regulate the movements of war and trade by the predictions of our ephemeris.

The mechanism, and that is all. We see the workman and the tools, but the skill that guides the work and the power that performs it are as invisible as ever. I fear that not every listener took the significance of those pregnant words in the passage I quoted from John Bell,--"thinking to discover its properties in its form." We have discovered the working bee in this great hive of organization.

We have detected the cell in the very act of forming itself from a nucleus, of transforming itself into various tissues, of selecting the elements of various secretions. But why one cell becomes nerve and another muscle, why one selects bile and another fat, we can no more pretend to tell, than why one grape sucks out of the soil the generous juice which princes hoard in their cellars, and another the wine which it takes three men to drink,--one to pour it down, another to swallow it, and a third to hold him while it is going down.

Certain analogies between this selecting power and the phenomena of endosmosis in the elective affinities of chemistry we can find, but the problem of force remains here, as everywhere, unsolved and insolvable.

Do we gain anything by attempting to get rid of the idea of a special vital force because we find certain mutually convertible relations between forces in the body and out of it? I think not, any more than we should gain by getting rid of the idea and expression Magnetism because of its correlation with electricity. We may concede the unity of all forms of force, but we cannot overlook the fixed differences of its manifestations according to the conditions under which it acts. It is a mistake, however, to think the mystery is greater in an organized body than in any other. We see a stone fall or a crystal form, and there is nothing stranger left to wonder at, for we have seen the Infinite in action.

Just so far as we can recognize the ordinary modes of operation of the common forces of nature,--gravity, cohesion, elasticity, transudation, chemical action, and the rest,--we see the so-called vital acts in the light of a larger range of known facts and familiar analogies. Matteuecci's well-remembered lectures contain many and striking examples of the working of physical forces in physiological processes. Wherever rigid experiment carries us, we are safe in following this lead; but the moment we begin to theorize beyond our strict observation, we are in danger of falling into those mechanical follies which true science has long outgrown.

Recognizing the fact, then, that we have learned nothing but the machinery of life, and are no nearer to its essence, what is it that we have gained by this great discovery of the cell formation and function?

同类推荐
  • 诗镜总论

    诗镜总论

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Tanglewood Tales

    Tanglewood Tales

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 十不二门

    十不二门

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • REGINALD

    REGINALD

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 拟寒山诗

    拟寒山诗

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 伽利略:近代科学之父

    伽利略:近代科学之父

    《图说世界名人:伽利略(近代科学之父)》介绍了,伽利略·伽利莱,意大利物理学家、天文学家和哲学家,近代实验科学的先驱者。其成就包括改进望远镜,进行天文观测,以及支持哥白尼的日心说。当时,人们争相传颂:“哥伦布发现了新大陆,伽利略发现了新宇宙。”今天,史蒂芬·霍金说:“自然科学的诞生要归功于伽利略,他这方面的功劳大概无人能及。”
  • 一品侯妃

    一品侯妃

    她是他娶来的妻子,聪明俊慧。知道他狼子野心,却仍旧是为他的温柔体贴而折服。踏马山河,他步步紧逼;以身葬爱,她毫无退路。那年隶属棠亭中,有人袖手折花赠与她,嗓音浅淡,温凉如风。这一段缘,却是折在了半路,再无声息……--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • CSGO:一杆鸟狙走天下

    CSGO:一杆鸟狙走天下

    天赋有多重要?仅仅有两年FPS游戏经验的田羽接触CSGO一周时间就拿下首杀,不到两个月就走上了市级赛舞台,半年问鼎全国冠军。可天赋还会带来什么?骄傲。骄傲的田羽被世界强队打了一个又一个耳光,尽管最终凭借逆天的运气和狡诈的策略打到了决赛,可基础不稳注定了与冠军无缘。中国战队六年都没有拿到的冠军,田羽本有可能获得胜利,可却因为关键时刻一次次的致命空枪,错过了最有可能拿下的冠军比赛,无情的打破了国人六年的冠军梦。本就自责不已的田羽又要被网络暴力侵蚀,从此以后的比赛田羽又要以什么心态去面对......
  • 麻石课

    麻石课

    走到三岔路口,莲香对阿莲说,“姐姐,我们一起走夹石沟吧。”阿莲摇头,“知仁这么做,自然有他的道理,你们先走,我们来把脚印擦掉。”知信跪倒在地,阿莲摸着他的头,“不要辜负了知仁,把孩子们带好,有他们,我们就值得。”老人、女人、孩子哭成一片,尔土问:“为什么不和我们一起走?”阿莲大喝一声,“都别哭了,赶紧走,我们往獐子冲,把脚印踩深点。”尔金、尔土才明白阿莲他们是为掩护大家,莲香轻轻地说了一句,“走吧,别辜负了知仁。”当知信带着孩子走到蛤蟆石,官兵们已经到达麻石课。知仁一声令下,先是檑木,后是滚石,接着是四大金刚冲下麻石课,知远带领一队冲下山,一阵喧哗之后,空气似乎凝塞,知仁看看四周,空无一人。他拖起大砍刀,站在麻石课山下的小路上,站成一尊昂藏伟岸的雕像。
  • 误解已生何必情深

    误解已生何必情深

    得不到回应的爱情要懂得适可而止,如果不是互相喜欢,你的痴情就会成为别人的负担。这是很多年后,何碧才真正明白的一句话,面对秦森的次次误解,何必终于忍受不了喜欢的人每次用恶毒的话语讽刺自己,最终她选择了告别,选择了放手,选择了离开,选择了生活在更好的明天,出国深造,在途中收获属于自己的爱情,最终爱情事业两丰收的美满结局。可能有时候,在冥冥之中命运自有它的安排,在一个不一定的时刻让你遇见一个一定的人。会错过你的人往往不懂得你身上的美,但总有一个人会发现你别具一格的美,珍惜独一无二的你......
  • 圣诞新颜:圣诞爱情喜剧之五

    圣诞新颜:圣诞爱情喜剧之五

    就在圣诞节快要来临之际,室内设计师杰姬·弗罗斯特意外接到圣诞老人的紧急电话,请她帮忙。回到北极,杰姬才发现是要把圣诞中心翻新改造一番,该计划是要给圣诞奶奶一个惊喜。然而,完成此事须同工匠大师迪恩·布拉德肖合作才行。迪恩是建筑行业的天才人物,英俊机敏、风趣幽默。但让杰姬烦恼的是,自己早已封心锁爱,建起一堵心墙严防死守,现在却被迪恩一点点地拆除……请欣赏圣诞爱情喜剧第五部:《圣诞新颜》,回味青春的甜蜜眼泪。
  • 电竞特战队

    电竞特战队

    报告!电竞大佬着了魔!常常感觉寄几被蒙住了双眼,勒住了喉咙,控制了心跳,还扬言被一团空气给睡了!这可咋整?在线等,挺急的!安明:会隐身了不起?!就能吃我的喝我的还睡了我?女人,你咋不上天呢!殷茵:呵呵…… ——————————
  • 穿越之君醉臣香

    穿越之君醉臣香

    东厂厂公姜寐注定是大庆史上最暧昧不清的一笔,传说他于宫宴之上色诱天子,醉入龙帷。传说他舌战群臣,力谏天子开设女子科举,震惊朝野。传说三名重臣联名上书他七条大罪,天子驳回,即日三名重臣午门腰斩,民怨沸腾。可最后,不知是何原因他被处以车裂之刑,五马分尸。行刑当日,他乍泄三千青丝,人们才知道,大奸臣姜寐,竟然是一名女子。行刑前一刻,姜寐难过的看着天子温柔轻哄的眼。“姜寐乖,告诉朕,卓王孙在哪里。”姜寐摇头。眼前这个她爱的男人,血腥且慈悲。而她就算是死也要带着这个秘密下地狱。*“皇上,如果有朝一日臣必须死在你手上,你会如何?”“朕会把你挫骨扬灰,然后——忘了你。”姜寐跪在地上,听到天子的答案,竟有点满意的笑了。她愿意用性命成就他河山,他却拒绝以爱情同她纠缠。【虐】【封面感谢镜陌绯】
  • The Strength of the Strong

    The Strength of the Strong

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 心理罪秘档

    心理罪秘档

    半夜坐出租车回家,凌晨出租车司机被人割头,所有证据都显示我就是凶手,凶器上的指纹,带血的衣服以及在场的监控,可是我却根本没有出过家门,倒底是谁在陷害我?替死者解剖的法医在家割掉了自己的头颅,让整个案件悬到不能再悬……