CHAPTER III. 



ORGANIZATION AND CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF 

 LIVING AND BRUTE MATTER. 



Laws of the organization and of the chemical composition of 

 living beings — Relative value of these laws; vital pheno- 

 mena in crushed protoplasm — Vital phenomena in brute 

 bodies. 



Eniuneration of the Principal Characters of Living 

 Beings. — The programme which we have just sketched 

 compels us to look in the brute being for the pro- 

 perties of living beings. What, then, are, in fact, the 

 characteristics of an authentic, complete, living being? 

 What are its fundamental properties ? We have 

 enumerated them above as follows: — A certain 

 chemical composition, which is that of living matter; 

 a structure or organization ; a specific form ; an 

 evolution which has a duration, that of life, and an 

 end, death ; a property of growth or nutrition ; a 

 property of reproduction. Which of these characters 

 counts for most in the definition of life ? Are they 

 all equally necessary ? If some of them were wanting, 

 would that justify the transference of a being, who 

 might possess the rest, from the animate world to 

 that of minerals ? This is precisely the question that 

 is under consideration. 



Organization and Chemical Composition of Living 

 Beings. — All that we know concerning the constitution 



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