4 THE MECHANISM OF LIFE 



which it returns to that environment under another form. All 

 Living organisms are transformers of energy. 



A living organism is also a transformer of matter. It 

 absorbs matter from its environment, transforms it, and 

 returns it to its environment in a different chemical condition. 

 Living things are chemical transformers of matter. 



Living beings are also transformers of form. They com- 

 mence as a very simple form, which gradually develops and 

 becomes more complicated. 



The matter of which a living organism is constituted con- 

 sists essentially of certain solutions of crystalloids and colloids. 

 To this we may add an osmotic membrane to contain the 

 liquids, and a solid skeleton to support and protect them. 

 Finally, it would seem that a colloid of one of the albuminoid 

 groups is a necessary constituent of every living being. 



We may say, then, that a living being is a transformer of 

 energy and of matter, containing certain albuminoid sub- 

 stances, with an evolutionary form, the constitution of which 

 is- essentially liquid. 



A living being has but a limited duration. It is born, 

 develops, becomes organized, declines and dies. Through all 

 the metamorphoses of form, of substance, and of energy, 

 informing the whole course of its existence, there is a certain 

 co-ordination, a certain harmony, which is necessary lor the 

 conservation of the individual. This harmony we call Fife. 

 Discord is disease, — the total cessation of the harmony is Death. 

 When the form is profoundly altered and the substance changed, 

 the transformation of energy no longer follows its regular course, 

 the organism is dead. 



After death the colloids which have constituted the form 

 of the living thing pass from their liquid state as "sols" into 

 their coagulated state as '•gels. 11 The metamorphoses of 

 form, substance, and energy still continue, but no longer 

 harmoniously for the conservation of the individual, but in 

 dis-harmony for its dissolution. Finally, the form of I lie 

 individual disappears, the substance and the energy of the 

 living being is resolved and dispersed into other bodies and 

 other phenomena. 



