SPROUTING OF SEEDS. 93 



into sugar. The office of this substance, therefore becomes 

 clear; it is the true digestive body of the embryo plant, by 

 which its store of food material is remoleculized and fitted 

 for its assimilation. 



In the egg, this process has not been so well made out; but 

 enough is known to determine the fact that the store of albu- 

 men is profoundly changed previous to assimilation. 



The perennial plant, which lies dormant in winter, is to 

 some extent similar, during the interval of inactivity, to the 

 seed. It contains within its structure formed material for 

 use in spring time, for the reformation of the leaves, for the 

 gathering and transformation of a portion of its food material. 

 These stores of formed material seem to be made use of much 

 in the same manner, and by the same means, by which they 

 are transformed in the seed ; that is, by means of a diastase, 

 or soluble ferment, formed at the proper moment for its solu- 

 tion. In this respect, we find a close analogy between the 

 plant and the animal, as we shall see further on. 



I have brought forward these well-known phenomena for 

 the purpose of enforcing the principle lying at the very 

 threshold of the nutritive function ; for the purpose of impress- 

 ing the fact that the life force, wherever found, carries forward 

 its business in regular and definite forms, by regular and defi- 

 nite means ; and that its means to the accomplishment of the 

 preparation of its food material is similar throughout all its 

 varied forms. One form of life lives on this, another on that 

 food material, but the process by which food material is 

 brought into a state fitting it for its final assimilation by the 

 life force, and the building of tissue, of whatever kind or 

 quality, is the same in its general plan. 



