CHAPTER I. 



LIFE AND ELECTRICITY 



IN the first place, let us ask the momentous question, 

 " What is life ? " The best answer I have seen is 

 given by the American Medical Dictionary which defines 

 it as "a peculiar stimulated condition of organised matter.** 



And if it is a stimulated condition of organised matter 

 upon what is it dependent for its continuance ? Not, as 

 a whole, upon oxygen for we are confronted by the problem 

 of anaerobic micro-organisms which are said to live without 

 it ; not upon food or heat ; against that we have hiberna- 

 tion, the imprisonment of toads for long periods of time 

 in stone or wood, of survival in fact under conditions 

 seemingly fatal to life. The dried seed if it does not live 

 is possessed of potential life so long as its testa is kept dry 

 and the liquid content of the seed-substance remains ; 

 while in the absence of electrical diffusion, consequent upon, 

 organic disintegration, suspended animation maj^ simulate 

 death so closely as to lead to premature burial. 



Dr. Benjamin Ward's paper upon Resuscitation after 

 certain forms of symptomatic death suggested that death is 

 sometimes more apparent than real and I have a vivid 

 recollection of his showing me, many years ago, how to 

 resuscitate frozen fish. 



Carpenter tells us that it is unquestionable that many 

 fishes, especially those of fresh- water lakes, will revive 

 after having been completely frozen ; that the snail, when 

 retiring for the winter, seals the orifice of its shell with 

 an impervious lid ; and in this cavity it may remain shut 

 up for years, until re-excited to activity by warmth and 

 moisture. 



Dr. David Eraser Harris, writing in Knowledge, instances 

 certain bacteria which after being frozen at the tempera- 

 ture of liquid air (about minus 200C.) were not killed, but 



