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rding as the insubordination to a single center is more or less pronounced, the resultant organism will be more or less irregular in form and may even discontinuous.

A class of peculiar organisms, the slime molds, formerly regarded as animals (Mycetozoa), but now generally thought to be plants and often separated as a distinct phylum (Myxophyta). They are found on damp earth and decaying vegetable matter, and consist of naked masses of protoplasm, often of considerable size, which…

classification based upon real affinities, as shown in the structure of all parts of the organisms, and by their embryology. It should be borne in mind that the natural system of botany is natural only in the constitution of its genera, tribes, orders, etc., and in its grand divisions. Gray. -- Natural theology, or Na…

An organism, either vegetable or animal, which at its maturity has no generative organs, or but imperfectly developed ones, as a plant without stamens or pistils, as the garden Hydrangea; esp., one of the imperfectly developed females of certain social insects, as of the ant and the common honeybee, which perform the l…

In the broadest sense, a process or series of processes by which the living organism as a whole (or its component parts or organs) is maintained in its normal condition of life and growth.

The history of the individual development of an organism; the history of the evolution of the germ; the development of an individual organism, -- in distinction from phylogeny, or evolution of the tribe. Called also henogenesis, henogeny.

as, the organic structure of animals and plants; exhibiting characters peculiar to living organisms; as, organic bodies, organic life, organic remains. Cf. Inorganic.

Making an organic or organized structure; producing an organism; acting through, or resulting from, organs. Prof. Park.

Organism. [R.]

That wich is organized; an organized existence; an organism; specif. (Biol.), an arrangement of parts for the performance of the functions necessary to life. The cell may be regarded as the most simple, the most common, and the earliest form of organization. McKendrick.

ession produced by any substance on the organs of touch, taste, or smell, and also on the organism as a whole.

The old theory that the egg contains the whole embryo of the future organism and the germs of all subsequent offsprings and is merely awakened to activity by the spermatozoön; -- opposed to spermism or animalculism.

The doctrine that all organisms must come from living parents; biogenesis; -- the opposite of Ant: spontaneous generation.

study of alcoholic fermentation, but used also for the cultivation of bacteria and other organisms. It contains all the elements of protoplasm, and was originally made of the ash of yeast, some ammonia compound, sugar, and water.

fluids in infectious diseases, and supposed to be the cause of the disease; a pathogenic organism; a pathogenic bacterium; -- opposed to zymogene.

Of or pertaining to pathogeny; producting disease; as, a pathogenic organism; a pathogenic bacterium.

The influence of light on the movements of low organisms, as various infusorians, the zoöspores of certain algæ, etc.; also, the tendency to follow definite directions of motion or assume definite positions under such influence. If the migration is toward the source of light, it is termed positive phototaxis; if away f…

f the phylon or tribe, in distinction from ontogeny, or the development of the individual organism, and from biogenesis, or life development generally.

Relating to phylogenesis, or the race history of a type of organism. -- Phy*lo*ge*net"ic*al*ly, adv.

A group of simple marine organisms, usually classed as the lowest of the sponges. They have inflated hollow bodies.