36 PROPERTIES OF MATTER 



alike would be generally different. It would 

 constantly vary, in its properties, according to 

 the specific nature of the substances, out of 

 which it was made. The change itself would 

 be constant and definite, and not liable to the 

 remission and variation which we witness dur- 

 ing the process of digestion. It is, therefore, 

 legitimate to conclude, that the process of di- 

 gestion, by means of which different kinds of 

 food are assimilated to one and the same spe- 

 cies, is not a chemical, but a living, act ; and 

 that the efficient cause of this commutation 

 does not arise from any active or chemical pro- 

 perty, which in the food inheres, but, that it 

 proceeds from the power of the organ alone, in 

 which it is received, and by whose energy, the 

 , new arrangements of the parts are formed. 



It is this unifying power, which the assimi- 

 lating organs possess over materials discordant 

 and heterogeneous ; by which the act of diges- 

 tion especially differs from aggregation simply, 

 or the more complicated phenomena arising 

 from chemical union and combination. This 

 assimilating power pervades throughout the 

 whole range of animated existence. It is, in 

 essence, the same in animals, *as it is in vege- 

 tables ; however diversified the construction of 

 the organs may be, by which the effect is pro- 

 duced. In all these, the organs are designed 

 to reduce different substances to one kind, that 



