io THE MECHANISM OF LIFE 



cules of formol minus one molecule of water, »(C 6 H 10 O 5 ), 

 form starch and cellulose. 



Animals derive their nourishment from vegetables either 

 directly, or indirectly through the flesh of herbivorous animals. 

 The mineral matter, rendered organic in its passage through a 

 vegetable growth, is finally returned bv the agency of animal 

 organisms to the mineral world again, in the form of carbonic 

 acid, water, urea, and nitrates. Thus vegetables may be 

 regarded as synthetic agents, and animals and microbes as 

 agents of decomposition. Here also the difference is only 

 relative, for in certain cases vegetables produce carbonic acid, 

 while some animal organisms effect synthetic combinations. 

 Moreover, there are intermediary forms, such as fungi, which 

 possessing no chlorophyll are nourished like animals by 

 organic matter, and yet like vegetables are able to manu- 

 facture organic matter from mineral salts. 



The work of combustion begun by the animal organism 

 is finished by the action of micro-organisms, who complete 

 the oxydation — the re-mineralization of the chemical substances 

 drawn originally from the inorganic world by the agency of 

 plant life. 



To sum up. Vegetables obtain their nourishment from 

 mineral substances, which they reduce, de-oxydi/e. and charge 

 with solar energy. Animal organisms on the contrary oxydize, 

 and micro-organisms complete the oxydation of these sub- 

 stances, returning them to the mineral world as water, 

 carbonates, nitrates, and sulphates. 



Thus matter circulates eternally from the mineral to the 

 vegetable, fiom the vegetable to the animal world, and back 

 again. The matter which forms our structure, which is to-day 

 part and parcel of ourselves, has formed the structure of an 

 infinite number of living beings, and will continue to pursue 

 its endless reincarnation after our decease. 



This endless cycle of life is also an endless cycle of energy. 

 The combination of carbon with water carried out by the 

 agency of chlorophyll can only take place with absorption of 

 energy. This energy comes directly from the sun. the rid and 

 orange light radiations being absorbed by the chlorophyll. 



