NA TURE OF NUTRITION. i o i 



even attempt to explain. That this is so, is rendered pro- 

 bable by many general facts, open to the observation of all, 

 as well as by the wonderful phenomena seen with the aid of 

 the highest powers of our microscopes. 



The point in which every nutritive operation differs 

 essentially from every other known change is this : the com- 

 position and properties of the nutrient matter are completely 

 altered, its elements are entirely rearranged, so that com- 

 pounds which may be detected in the nutrient matter are no 

 longer present when this has been taken up by the matter 

 to be nourished. The only matter capable of effecting such 

 changes as these is living matter, and it is very remarkable 

 that when this matter ceases to live, we do not detect 

 amongst the compounds formed at its death substances pre- 

 viously present in the pabulum, but new bodies altogether, 

 and these often vary according to the circumstances under 

 which the matter dies. 



Desiring as I do to yield all that can be yielded to those 

 who maintain that there is no vital power distinct from 

 ordinary force, I might say that a particle of soft transparent 

 matter, called by some living, which came from a pre-exist- 

 ing particle, effected, silently and in a moment, without appa 

 ratus, with little loss of material, at a temperature of 60 or 

 lower, changes in matter, some of which can be imitated in 

 the laboratory in the course of days or weeks by the aid of 

 a highly skilled chemist, furnished with complex apparatus 

 and the means of producing a very high temperature and 

 intense chemical action, and with an enormous waste of 

 material. It is, therefore, quite obvious that an indepen- 

 dent, thoughtful person, must, for the present, hold that the 



