352 Mr Carpenter aii the Differences of the Laws 



a certain relation to the mind, the expression is manifestly 

 inconsistent with itself. But there is nothing inconsistent 

 with our knowledge of the physical properties of matter in the 

 belief that all matter, or each at least of those forms of it ca- 

 pable of being assimilated, is also endowed with vital pro- 

 perties which remain undisplayed or occult (see § 5) until 

 brought into action by being subjected to those conditions 

 which a living organised system alone can afford. 



Experience and observation lead to conclusions not dissimi- 

 lar. Organization and vital properties are simultaneously com- 

 municated to the germ by the structures of its parent ; those 

 vital properties confer upon it the means of itself assimilating, 

 and thereby organizing and endowing with vitality, the mate- 

 rials supplied by the inorganic world ; and, as long as each 

 tissue retains its normal constitution, renovated by the actions 

 of absorption and deposition by which that constitution is pre- 

 served, and surrounded by those concurrent conditions which 

 a living system affords, so long, have we every reason to be- 

 lieve will it retain its vital properties and no longer ; and, just 

 as we have no evidence of the existence of vital properties in 

 any other form of matter than that denominated organized, so 

 have we no reason to believe that organized matter can exist in 

 those conditions which a living body supplies, without mani- 

 festing vital properties. 



There is no difficulty in accounting, on this view, for the general loss of 

 vitality which results from the cessation of any one function ; and as the ad- 

 vance of pathological science renders it every day more probable that de- 

 rangement in function always implies some structural alteration (although it 

 may be imperceptible to our senses) or change in the character of the neces- 

 sary stimuli by which the properties are called into action, the usual pheno- 

 mena of death can readily be explained upon the principles here advocated. 

 There are some cases of sudden destruction of vitality, however, in which no 

 perceptible change in solids or fluids can be detected; but this is probably 

 owing to the imperfection of our means of research. For instance, we can 

 scarcely doubt, that, when the vitality of an egg is destroyed by an electric 

 shock, or moderate exposure to heat, the agent produces, in obedience to che- 

 mical laws, some alteration in the material structure inconsistent with the 

 continued existence of the vital properties. A seed may be deprived of its 

 vitality by immersion in water of the temperature of 1C0°, and nothing but 

 a very minute examination would discover any structural alteration in its 

 tissues ; but collateral experiments prove that this is just the temperature at 

 which the vesicles of fecula are ruptured, so that the physical change pro> 



