LIFE AND DEATH. 



BOOK I. 



THE FRONTIERS OF SCIENCE — GENERAL THEORIES 

 OF LIFE AND DEATH — THEIR SUCCESSIVE 

 TRANSFORMATIONS. 



Chapter I. Early Theories. — II. Animism. — III. Vitalism. — 

 IV. Monism. — V. Emancipation of Scientific Research 

 from the Yoke of Philosophy. 



CHAPTER I. 



EARLY THEORIES. 



Animism — Vitalism — The Physico-Chemical Theory — Their 

 Survival and Transformations. 



The fundamental theories of science are but the ex- 

 pression of its most general results. What, then, is 

 the most general result of the development of 

 physiology or biology — that is to say, of that depart- 

 ment of science which has life as its object ? What 

 glimpse do we get of the fruit of all our efforts ? The 

 answer is evidently the response to that essential 

 question — What is Life ? 



There are beings which we call living beings ; there 

 are bodies which have never been alive — inanimate 

 bodies ; and there are bodies which are no longer 



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