CHAPTER VI. 



NUTRITION. 



FUNCTIONAL ASSIMILATION. FUNCTIONAL DESTRUC- 

 TION. ORGANIC DESTRUCTION. ASSIMILATING 

 SYNTHESIS. 



The extreme importance of nutrition— § i. Effect of vital 

 activity — Destruction or growth — Distinction between the 

 living substance and the reserve-stuff mingled with it — 

 Organic destruction — Destruction of reserve-stuff — De- 

 struction of living matter — Growth of living matter — 

 § 2. The two categories of vital phenomena — Foundations 

 of the idea of functional destruction — The two kinds of 

 phenomena of vitality — Criticism of Claude Bernard — 

 Current views — Criticism of Le Dantec's new theory of 

 life. — § 3. Correlation of the two kinds of vital facts — Law 

 of connection — Contradictions in the new theory. — § 4. The 

 characteristics of nutrition — Its definition — Its permanence 

 — Erroneous idea of the vital vortex — Formative assimilation 

 of reserve-stuff— Formative assimilation of protoplasm — 

 •Death, real and apparent. , 



The Immense Importance of Nutrition. — We now 

 come to the important feature of vitality. All other 

 characteristics of living matter, its unstable equilibrium, 

 its chemical and anatomical organization, the acquisi- 

 tion and the maintenance of a typical form, are only 

 secondary properties, so to speak, subordinate with 

 reference to nutrition. Generation itself is only a 

 mode. Nutrition is the essential attribute of life. It 

 is life itself. 



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