CHAPTER XII 



THE PHENOMENA OF LIFE AND OSMOTIC PRO- 

 DUCTIONS—A STUDY IN PHYSIOGENESIS 



It is impossible to define life, not only because it is complex, 

 but because it varies in different living beings. The 

 phenomena which constitute the life of a. man are far other 

 than those which make up the life of a polyp or a plant; 

 and in the more simple forms life is so greatly reduced 

 that it is often a matter of difficulty to decide whether a 

 given form belongs to the animal, vegetable, or mineral 

 kingdom. Considering the impossibility of defining the exact 

 line of demarcation between animate and inanimate matter, it 

 is astonishing to find so much stress laid on the supposed 

 fundamental difference between vital and non-vital phenomena. 

 There is in fact no sharp division, no precise limit where 

 inanimate nature ends and life begins; the transition is 

 gradual and insensible, for just as a living organism is made 

 of the same substances as the mineral world, so life is a 

 composite of the same physical and chemical phenomena 

 that we find in the rest of nature. All the supposed 

 attributes of life are found also outside living organisms. 

 Life is constituted by the association of physico-chemical 

 phenomena, their harmonious grouping and succession. 

 Harmony is a condition of life. 



We are quite unable to separate living beings from the 

 other productions of natui'e by their composition, since they 

 are formed of the same mineral elements. All the aliments of 

 plants — water, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulphur— before 

 their absorption and assimilation belonged to the mineral 

 kingdom. The carbon and the water are transformed into 



