158 THE MECHANISM OF LIFE 



The physico-chemical study of osmotic growth is as vet 

 hardly begun ; we have but indicated the method, the way is 

 open, and the problems awaiting solution are legion. Only work 

 and ever more work and workers are required. Experiments 

 should be made with substances which are chemically unstable 

 like the albuminoids, substances which readily combine and 

 dissociate again, alternately absorbing and giving up the 

 potential energy which is the essence of life. Experiments 

 should also be made with substances which readily unite or 

 decompose under the influence of water, since hydration and 

 hydrolysis appear to be the dominant mechanism in all vital 

 reaction, as they undoubtedly are in osmotic growth, which 

 consists of an increase of hydration on one side of an osmotic 

 membrane and a diminution on the other side. 



Life is not a substance but a mechanical phenomenon ; it 

 is a dynamic and kinetic transference of energy determined by 

 physico-chemical reactions; and the whole trend of modern 

 research leads to the belief that these reactions are of the 

 same nature as those met with in the organic world. It is 

 the grouping of physical reactions and their mode of associa- 

 tion and succession, their harmony in fact, which constitutes 

 life. The problem we have to solve in the synthesis of life 

 is the proper attuning and harmonizing of these physical 

 phenomena, as they exist in living beings, and there should 

 be no absolute impossibility in our some dav realizing this 

 harmony in whole or in part. 



Albert Gaudry says : " I cannot conceive why in determin- 

 ing the connecting links of the animal world the fact that an 

 organic body is formed of such and such elements should be of 

 greater importance than the manner in which these elements 

 are grouped. Descartes regarded extension as the essential 

 property of an organized being; he supposed it to be inert of 

 itself, and that it had the Deity for its motive force. To-day 

 the hypothesis of Descartes has given way to that of Leibnitz, 

 who regards force as the essential property of the living being, 

 the visible and tangible matter being only of secondary 

 importance. If we regard the living being as a force, this 

 orce is able to aggregate matter under Mich and such a form, 



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