"Surely it is not a matter of indifference or of mere words, if the extreme aim of physiology avowedly be the detection of the different functions dependent on the vital exertions of a variety of ultimate organisms, and the discovery of the specific stimulants which naturally incite these functions into play. Or, on the other hand, if it be understood to consist rather in the careful investigation of the succession of chemical differentiations and their accompanying physical changes, which give rise to the formation of a variety of tissues that are found to possess certain specific properties, to display certain definite actions due to a further flow of chemical and physical modifications." In 1871 there appeared a memoir by the Dutch savant Harting entitled _Recherche de Morphologie synthetique sur la production artificielle de quelques formations calcaires organiques_. This memoir, says Professor R. Dubois, had cost Harting more than thirty years of work. "Synthetic morphology is yet only in its infancy, let us hope that in a time equal to that which has already expired since the first artificial production of urea, it will have made a progress equal to that of its older sister, synthetic chemistry." In the _Comptes Rendues_ of 1882 is the following note by D. Monnier and Karl Vogt:-- "1. Figured forms presenting all the characteristics of organic growth, cells, porous canals, tubes with partition walls, and heterogeneous granules, may be produced artificially in appropriate liquids by the mutual action of two salts which form one or more insoluble salts by double decomposition. One of the component salts should be in solution, while the other salt must be introduced in the solid form. {117} "2. Such forms of organic elements, cells, tubes, etc., may be produced either in an organic liquid or a semi-organic liquid such as sucrate of lime, or in an absolutely inorganic liquid such as silicate of soda. Thus there can no longer be any question of distinctive forms as characterizing organic bodies in contradistinction to inorganic bodies. "3. The figured elements of these pseudo-organic forms depend on the nature, the viscosity, and the concentration of the liquids in which they are produced. Certain viscous liquids such as solutions of gum arabic or chloride of zinc do not produce these forms. "4. The form of these artificial pseudo-organic products is constant, as constant as that of the crystalline forms of mineral salts. This form is so characteristic that it may often serve for the recognition of a minimal proportion of a substance in a mixture. The observation of these forms is a means of analysis as sensitive as that of the spectrum. We may, for example, differentiate in this way the alkaline bicarbonates from the sesqui-carbonates or the carbonates.