LIFE AND ELECTRICITY 13 



could survive so extremely drastic a procedure as this 

 and yet retain their specific vital pathogenic characteristics. 

 When frozen they were so brittle that they could be powdered 

 in a mortar, they were nevertheless in a state of latent life. 

 He concludes as follows : 



" Thus, the solution of our problem, What is latent life ? 

 seems capable of being stated in the terms of the already 

 known. The organism in latent life is not dead, for it is 

 capable of living again ; it is, however, very far from being 

 fully alive, for it is manifesting none of the attributes of 

 livingness. 



" Without a chemical theory of living matter ' suspended 

 animation would be inexplicable.' " 



With the last paragraph I certainly do not agree. The 

 chemical theory does not explain suspended animation or 

 help us to a clear understanding of life. 



*" The death of the body then, does not consist in the 

 mere suspension of its vital activity ; for so long as that 

 activity may be renewed when the requisite conditions are 

 ■supplied, so long must the organism be considered as alive, 

 however death-like its condition may seem." The italics 

 are mine. 



No question can be more complex, but the two words 

 *' Warmth " and " Moisture " are full of significance. 

 Warmth increases the conductivity of the nerves, and 

 moisture gives capacity, or power of absorption of electrical 

 energy from the air. From that we may gather a little 

 light, but altogether must take the view that a force at 

 present unrecognised in our schools operates in sustaining 

 if not in creating what we call life. 



Let us go back, if not to the very beginning of things, 

 at all events as far as we can, to the reproduction of the 

 cells of which all animal and vegetable bodies are built up, 

 and^ see exactly what takes place. 



I quote the following from The Evolution of Sex, by 

 •Geddes & Thomson. 



" That attractions and repulsions do exist within the 

 cells is certain ; an analysis of their precise nature — the 

 *Carpenter. 



