LIFE. 



149 



festation of these, while the substance remains 

 in the condition of inorganic matter, is no 

 proof that they do not appertain to it. 



We find nothing, then, in our fundamental 

 ideas of matter, to oppose the doctrine that 

 vital properties are developed in it by the very 

 act of organisation. But we shall consider the 

 question in another point of view. We are 

 constantly witnessing examples of the total 

 change effected upon the properties of certain 

 forms of matter by their entrance into new 

 combinations. Thus, how completely different 

 are the properties of a salt from those of the 

 acid and alkali which unite to form it. And we 

 are not obliged to have recourse to chemical 

 union for cases of such a change; since there are 

 examples in which mere mechanical admixture 

 of the particles of different bodies will produce 

 the same. How different, for instance, are the 

 properties of gunpowder from those of any of 

 its ingredients. They are all combustible it is 

 true ; but in a manner as unlike it as each 

 other. Does any one think of assigning any 

 other cause to these changes than the act of 

 combination or admixture ? Does he seek for 

 it in the operation of a saline property super- 

 added to the compound of acid arid alkali; or 

 of a combustible principle presiding over the 

 combined actions of the nitre, sulphur, and 

 charcoal, and directing them to one common 

 object? If not, why should he adopt a 

 different course in regard to vital properties ? 



In our investigation of natural phenomena, 

 we never observe a substance endowed with 

 new properties, without it has undergone some 

 change in its own condition, of which altered 

 state these properties are the necessary attend- 

 ants. Unless, therefore, an instance could be 

 produced in which the same form of matter 

 shall at one time evince properties of which it 

 is proved to be destitute at another, we have no 

 right to speak of any property as distinct from 

 the matter which exhibits it, or as capable of 

 being supcradded to it or subtracted from it. It 

 may be desirable for us to pause here, in order 

 to examine a case in which it has been alleged 

 that such an addition takes place, and which 

 has been used as an analogical argument in 

 support of the doctrine of a vital principle. 

 It has been commonly said that a living body, 

 in assimilating and organising the nutrient 

 matter by which the changes essential to its ex- 

 istence are maintained, superadds or communi- 

 cates to it by a separate act, those vital proper- 

 ties of which it was itself previously possessed ; 

 and there is no more difficulty, it has been 

 argued, in conceiving how vital properties may 

 be communicated to organised matter, than in 

 understanding how magnetic properties may be 

 superinduced upon iron. But the analogy is 

 based upon a false conception of the latter 

 process, which is really conformable in cha- 

 racter to those by which gravitation or any 

 other properties of matter are brought into ac- 

 tion. For the so-called communication of 

 magnetic properties to iron is nothing more 

 than the production of a change in the condi- 

 tions of the metal, by which its electric proper- 

 ties are manifested in a manner peculiar to 

 itself, and caused to give rise to magnetic 



powers. If, then, an analogy exists between 

 the two processes, (which can scarcely be de- 

 nied,) it leads us to the belief that, just as mag- 

 netic powers are developed in iron, when the 

 metallic mass is placed in a condition to mani- 

 fest them, so the very act of organization deve- 

 lopes vital powers in the tissues which it 

 constructs. For no one can assert that there 

 does not exist in every uncombined particle of 

 matter which is capable of being assimilated, 

 the ability to exhibit vital actions when placed 

 in the requisite conditions ; in other words, 

 when made a part of a living system by the 

 process of organisation. It is only the com- 

 plexity of the conditions required to manifest 

 it, which prevents our recognising this capabi- 

 lity as a common property of matter, or at least 

 of those forms of it which we know by expe- 

 rience to enter into the composition of organised 

 structures. 



Such are the conclusions to which we are led 

 by the general comparison of vital phenomena 

 with those of the external world ; and it would 

 be difficult, we might say impossible, to prove 

 that there is anything in the former which re- 

 moves them from the pale of such reasoning. 

 In fact, it appears to us that observation of 

 them alone would lead to similar inferences. 

 We perceive organisation and vital properties 

 simultaneously communicated to the germ by 

 the structures of its parent ; those vital proper- 

 ties confer upon it the means of itself assimi- 

 lating, and thereby endowing with vitality, the 

 materials supplied by the inorganic world. It 

 is very true that in this germ we cannot per- 

 ceive a single trace of the future being, the 

 various organs and structures of which are 

 evolved during its development. But these 

 are not evolved in any other way than by the 

 progressive extension and complication of the 

 parts of the original germ. If we witnessed 

 the aggregation of inorganic matter to form a 

 head in one place, a trunk in another, and 

 limbs in a third, and the subsequent union of 

 these, we might be disposed to suspect the 

 existence of some invisible agent which di- 

 rected and controlled the operation ; but we 

 can trace nothing in the real process but the 

 effect of the properties with which the struc- 

 ture of the germ is endowed at the same 

 time and by the same act that it is organised 

 by the parent. Nor is there anything in 

 the subsequent life of the being that op- 

 poses such a view ; on the contrary, much 

 that confirms it. As long as each tissue retains 

 its normal constitution, renovated by the ac- 

 tions of absorption and deposition by which 

 that constitution is preserved, and surrounded 

 by those concurrent conditions which a living 

 system alone can afford, so long, we have 

 reason to believe, it will retain its vital proper- 

 ties, and no longer. And just as we have no 

 evidence of the existence of vital properties in 

 any other form of matter than that denomi- 

 nated organised, so have we no reason to be- 

 lieve that organised matter can retain its regular 

 constitution, and be subjected to its appro- 

 priate stimuli, without exhibiting vital actions. 

 The advance of pathological science renders it 

 every day more probable that derangement in 



