THE DEFINITION OF LIFE. 



517 



power acquired by the physical properties. In 

 reality, the exact opposite of this proposition 

 expresses the truth, and that truth has been 

 proved over and over again by the labors of La- 

 voisier and his successors. Life does in the last 

 result represent a combustion, and combustion 

 itself is nothing more than a series of chemical 

 ' phenomena, with which there are directly con- 

 nected certain calorific, luminous, and vital mani- 

 festations. Exclude oxygen, the agent in com- 

 bustion, from the atmosphere, and instantly the 

 flame dies, instantly life stops. If we proceed to 

 lessen or increase the quantity of burning gas, 

 vital phenomena, as well as the chemical phe- 

 nomena of combustion, will be heightened or 

 weakened in like proportion. Therefore, we can- 

 not view the relation between chemical phenome- 

 na and vital manifestations as au antagonistic 

 one; on the contrary, there exists perfect par- 

 allelism, harmonious and essential connection. 

 Throughout the series of organized beings, their 

 intensity of vital manifestations is in direct ac- 

 cord with the activity of their organic chemical 

 manifestations. Proofs of this press forward in 

 every quarter. When a man or animal is seized 

 on by cold, the chemical phenomena of organic 

 combustion at first decline ; then motion grows 

 slower, sensibility and intelligence droop and be- 

 come dull, a complete benumbing comes on. On 

 reviving from that lethargy, the vital functions 

 resume their play, but always parallel with the 

 reappearance of chemical phenomena. When 

 life is suspended in a dried specimen of infusoria, 

 and is restored by the action of a few drops of 

 water, it is not because desiccation assailed life 

 or the vital properties, but because the fluid in- 

 dispensable for the production of the physical 

 and chemical phenomena was withdrawn from 

 the organism. When Spallanzani revived roti- 

 fers, that had been dried for thirty years, by 

 moistening them, he merely produced in their 

 bodies a reappearance of the physical and chemi- 

 cal phenomena which had been checked in them 

 for thirty years. Water contributed nothing else 

 whatever, neither a force nor a principle. 



How could we possibly understand an oppo- 

 sition or antagonism between the properties of 

 living bodies and those of inert substances, since 

 the elements that make up these two orders of 

 bodies are the same ? Buffon, seeking a reason 

 for the difference between organized and inorganic 

 beings, was logical in imagining the former pos- 

 sessed of a special elementary organic substance, 

 with which the latter were unprovided. Chemis- 

 try entirely upset that hypothesis by the proof 



that all living bodies are wholly formed from 

 mineral elements borrowed from the cosmic me- 

 ! dium. The human body, the most complex of 

 ' living bodies, is made of material yielded by four- 

 teen of these elements. We can easily under- 

 stand that these fourteen simple bodies might, by 

 uniting and coalescing in all ways, produce infi- 

 . nite combinations, and form compounds endowed 

 with the most various properties ; but what we 

 cannot possibly conceive is that such properties 

 I could be of a different order or a different essence 

 1 from the combinations themselves. 



To state conclusions, the opposition, antago- 

 j nism, or conflict, between vital phenomena and 

 | physico-chemical phenomena, allowed by the vi- 

 | talist school, is an error winch the discoveries of 

 I modern physics and chemistry have thoroughly 

 exploded. 



More than this, the vitalist theory does not 

 j merely rest on false suppositions and mistaken 

 , facts ; it contradicts the scientific spirit by its 

 ! very nature. By insisting on the creation of two 

 , orders of sciences, oue for lifeless substances, the 

 other for living bodies, that theory ends in a pure 

 , and simple denial of all science whatever. Bichat, 

 I we have seen, lays it down as a principle that the 

 j laws of the physical sciences are in absolute op- 

 ' position to the laws of the vital sciences. In the 

 former, everything must be steady and unchang- 

 ing; in the latter, everything must be unsettled 

 and variable. The divergence between these two 

 orders of sciences must leave them strangers to 

 each other, and disable them from furnishing any 

 mutual aid. This is the conclusion which Bichat 

 inevitably reaches. " As the physical and chemi- 

 I cal sciences," he says, " were highly cultivated 

 before the physiological ones, it was supposed 

 \ that the latter would gain clearness by connection 

 \ with the former, but the result was confusion. 

 It could not be otherwise, since applying physical 

 : sciences to physiology is explaining the phenom- 

 ' ena of living bodies by the laws of lifeless sub- 

 ; stances. Now, this is a false principle ; there- 

 fore, all its consequences must be marked with 

 the same stamp." Were we to ask what the 

 special notes are of this science of living beings, 

 Bichat answers, "It is a science which is like 

 the vital functions themselves, in being capable 

 of infinite variations, one which eludes every sort 

 of calculation, in which nothing can be foreseen 

 or foretold, and mere approximations, oftenest 

 vague ones, are presented to us." These are her- 

 | esies in science so enormous that it would be 

 ; difficult to understand them did we not see how 

 logically such a system must needs lead to them. 



