400 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



change arc in the fundamental idea of the living structure; and, conse- 

 quently, the material of the plant or animal contains only oxygen enough to 

 give increased stability to the combination. Moreover, the compounds aug- 

 ment in instability, through this and other ways, with the rise in the grade 

 of organic life, and reach probably their farthest extreme in this respect 

 in the brain. Here, then, is the summit of the series of compounds which 

 arise under the agency of life. The stable oxide is at the lower end of the 

 series in nature, the material of the brain at the upper. Passing from the 

 latter condition towards the former, is therefore a real descent; and it is the 

 natural downward course of inorganic forces; while passing towards the 

 latter is as truly an ascent; it is the counter-movement of life. 



The plant through its vital functions may take carbonic acid, and from it 

 continue to elaborate the organic products constituting vegetable fibre, until 

 a whole tree of such material is made, and then produce the higher material 

 of the flower and seed. The animal may then go to the plants and use them 

 in making a still higher class of products, muscular fibre and nerve. After 

 all this is done, now turn over the material to the action of chemical and 

 physical forces, and the work of years of life is soon pulled down from its 

 height, and one part after another descends towards that state of compara- 

 tive inactivity, the condition of an oxide. Chemistry makes organic pro- 

 ducts by commencing with those of a higher grade than the kind to be 

 made, but not otherwise. Albumen is a prominent material of the egg; 

 and chemistry has not succeeded in making dead albumen, much less living. 



The very relation of life to chemistry is therefore evidence that chemistry 

 cannot make life; it works in just the reverse direction. And in this recip- 

 rocal relation one of the profoundest laws of nature is exhibited. It leads 

 the mind to recognize one author for both, and not to imagine that one side 

 in the cycle has generated the other. 



2. There is another consideration, which, if it has not the force of demon- 

 stration, may help the mind to understand the extent of the transition from 

 dead matter to living. 



(a) In ordinary inorganic composition, there is the simple formation of 

 inorganic particles, and, on consolidation, their aggregation into crystals, 

 the perfect individuals of inorganic nature. With the enlargement of the 

 crystal there is no gain of new powers or qualities : it simply exists. In 

 fact, in entering this state of perfection, there is a loss of latent force ; for the 

 gas is the highest condition of stored or magazined force in inorganic nature, 

 the liquid the next, and the solid the lowest, this condition of power being 

 related directly to the amount of heat. 



(6) The plant grows from its germ, enlarges, accumulates force, storing it 

 away in vegetable fibre, and accomplishes its highest functions in its blos- 

 soms and fruit. But there is here only latent or stored force generated, besides 

 that which is used up in growth, and no mechanical force. The minute spore 

 or reproductive cellule of some seaweeds has locomotive power, but it is lost 

 at the commencement of germination; and the plant is ever after as incapa- 

 ble of self-locomotion as a rock. 



(c) In the animal, there is not only a storing of force in animal products 

 (the fifth and highest grade of stored force in nature), but there is also 

 increasing mechanical force from the first beginning of development. It is 

 almost or quite zero in the germ] but from this, it goes on increasing, until, 

 in the horse, it gets to be a one-horse power; or in the ant, a one-ant power; 

 and so for each species. And in addition to mechanical force, there is, in 



