Life as a Physical Phenomenon. 155 



infinite wisdom to protect the little system, and to assist 

 in its relations with surrounding systems. Divesting the 

 cell of its investments, and there remains but the difference 

 in magnitude between the galaxy of the planets and the 

 group of microscopic granules. 



As the sac of the cell continues to draw within itself 

 materials for protoplasm, and as the granules increase in 

 size, they become too large to be contained in the parent 

 cell, which bursts, and we see that each larger granule has 

 become a new nucleus, has surrounded itself with cell 

 walls like its parent, and is prepared for a separate existence. 

 Each of the new cells is seen to teem with new granules; 

 and each, as these granules enlarge, bursts and gives rise 

 to a new brood of living beings. 



Particles have been drawn from the mineral world, car- 

 bouic acid, water, and ammonia, have been taken up and 

 decomposed, and certain quantities of oxygen returned to 

 the atmosphere. Thus far, the process is purely chemical. 

 But these materials are no longer carbonic acid, water, and 

 ammonia. Each of these minims of the vegetable world 

 has not only imbibed from the mineral kingdom certain 

 elements, but it has assimilated this pabulum, converting 

 it into products for its own enlargement or growth, and 

 for the nourishment of still another class of beings. The 

 elements which have been used in this process have taken 

 a form never known to them in any other relations than 

 when combined in living structures, and instead of remain- 

 ing amorphous or assuming a crystalline form are arranged 

 in cells. Whether the force which causes these particles 

 when thus brought together in these proportions and under 

 these peculiar circumstances is an inherent property of 

 matter and corelated to the other forces which are mani- 

 fested in the mineral world, or whether it is a new and 

 peculiar force superadded to beings of this construction, 

 and which is called vitality, is a question which we will ex- 



