226 LIFE AND DEATH. 



destruction of a reserve-stuff (and perhaps of a small 

 quantity of the living substance) precedes and con- 

 ditions the formation of a greater quantity of this 

 living matter — in other words, the growth of the 

 protoplasm of the organ. 



Contradictions in the New Theoty. — Moreover, these 

 mistakes involve those who make them in a series of 

 inextricable contradictions. Here, for example, is 

 life; it is found, they say, in three forms: — Life 

 manifested, or condition i°; latent life, or condition 

 3°. So far this is the classical theory ; but they add 

 a condition 2°, which is what might be called patho- 

 logical or incomplete life. This is defined by the 

 following characteristic: — That its functional pheno- 

 mena are identical with those in the first form, but 

 that they are not accompanied by assimilation and by 

 protoplasmic growth. But since, they say, growth is 

 the chemical consequence of the functional activity, 

 since it is so to speak its metabolic aspect, since it is 

 confused with it, and inseparable from it, by the 

 argument — then it is contradictory and logically 

 absurd to speak of condition 2°. It would be ac- 

 knowledging in the case of the anucleated merozoite, 

 for example, a functional activity unaccompanied by 

 assimilation, yet identical with the functional activity 

 which is accompanied by assimilation in the nucleated 

 merozoite. The general movement, that of the cilia, 

 the taking of food, the evacuation of the faeces, the 

 contraction of the pulsatile vacuoles, are the same. 

 And this fact is the best proof that this vital func- 

 tional activity (with the organic destruction which is 

 its energetic source) must be distinguished from the 

 assimilation which usually follows it, and which in 

 exceptional cases may not follow it. 



