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as after disease has ceased, the quantum of life is increased, or its 

 original one restored, that then the new quantum of life is related 

 with new organic particles, which are produced accordingly, and 

 remain as long as this agreement shall subsist. In this alternative, 

 viz. that particles once laid down continue to preserve their place, 

 an operation is attributed to life, or to another process of causation, 

 to which the common cohesion of matter, and the faculty which 

 life has to prevent putrefaction, are both inadequate; for under 

 disease the particles are unsettled, and the textures waste, thus 

 proving the inadequacy of material cohesion to preserve them ; and 

 this takes place without, as we have reason to believe, the occur- 

 rence of putrefactive processes. 



52. 5. As then it appears probable from this view, and also in 

 agreement I believe with general opinion, that the particles com- 

 posing the structures are laid down, occupy their places for a period, 

 and are then removed, it remains to be decided whether their re- 

 moval is permitted, 



1st, In consequence of a change in their relation with life, as 

 by the cessation of intercourse or influence between particles which 

 have been for a while laid down, and the properties by which their 

 place was first assigned; or, 



2nd, Whether their removal is wholly mechanical, as if worn 

 away by a gradual attrition of the fluids moving on their surfaces 

 and in their interstices; or, 



3rd, Whether, after remaining in the places in which they were 

 first deposited, they become subject (by a progressive causation or 

 change in the relations of these complex properties) to another 

 function, viz. to that of the absorbents ? 



As these alternatives respectively will admit of discussion, and 

 as there is a deficiency of facts by which the questions may be 

 settled ; or if such facts exist, the recollection and arrangement of 

 them require that the subject should be made an individual inquiry: 

 on these accounts I leave them as alternatives or views, which, as 

 originally proposed, are designed to serve at best but as indications 

 for the use of those who are inclined to think more minutely and 

 methodically upon the subject. 



