460 WEITINGS OF JOSEPH HENRY. [1866 



in both cases will be expended in the transformation of the 

 materials; but how different will be the effects produced. 

 In the case of the egg deprived of vitality, all the organized 

 molecules will be converted into gases and vapors, with the 

 development of heat and an elastic energ}'-, in some cases 

 sufficient to burst the shell, the power originally stored away 

 in the egg being thus dissipated in the production of chemi- 

 cal and mechanical changes. In the case of the egg pos- 

 sessed of vitality, a portion of the organized molecules will 

 also run down into vapors and gases, which will gradually 

 escape through the perforations of the shell, and will thus, 

 as in the previous case, evolve an equivalent amount of 

 power; but this, instead of being dissipated in mere mechani- 

 cal or chemical effects, will be expended, under the directing 

 principle of vitality, in elevating to a higher degree of organ- 

 ization the molecules of the remainder, and in transforming 

 them into organs of sensation, perception, and locomotion; 

 in short, in the production of a machine precisely similar to 

 those constructed by the intellectual operations of man when 

 guiding or directing the powers of nature. If we examine 

 the transformation as it goes on from day to day, we shall 

 see that it does not consist in a simple aggregation of parti- 

 cles in the production of the organs we have mentioned, but 

 in preliminary arrangements, such as canals, and provis- 

 ional parts, afterwards to be obliterated, and the adoption of 

 means for a more remote end, the whole indicating an in- 

 tention realized in the sentient, living, moving animal. 



This vital principle, from strict analogy, cannot be consid- 

 ered as an essential property of matter, since it is only contin- 

 ued by transmission from one living being to another. It is 

 true that it ceases to manifest itself when a slight derange- 

 ment takes place in the organized material with which it is 

 connected, and death ensues; but this is precisely analogous 

 to the manifestation of the thinking, willing principle within' 

 us, the existence of which is revealed to us by our own con- 

 sciousness as a primordial truth, beyond which nothing can 

 be more certain. 



