82 THE NATURE OF LIFE 



As the result of these investigations 

 we are led to look upon recovery in a 

 somewhat different fashion from that 

 which is customary. While recovery is 

 usually regarded as due to the reversal 

 of the process which produces injury, 

 the conception of the writer is fundamen- 

 tally different. It assumes that the re- 

 actions involved are irreversible (or prac- 

 tically so) and that injury and recovery 

 diflfer only in the relative speed at which 

 certain processes take place. 



The experiments of the writer lead to 

 the view that life depends upon a series 

 of reactions which normally proceed at 

 rates bearing a definite relation to each 

 other. If this is true it is clear that a 

 disturbance of these rate-relations may 

 have a profound effect upon the organ- 

 ism, and may produce such diverse phe- 

 nomena as stimulation, development, in- 

 jury, and death. Such a disturbance 

 might be produced by changes of tem- 

 perature (if the temperature coefficients 

 of the reactions differ) or by chemical 



