PROFESSOR OWEN ON DEATH. 65 



certain kind?) of matter. Is there, then, no difference 

 between selection and attraction ? 



Of Death. Owen observes that death is not charac- 

 teristic of things living only ; for if the steel be unmag- 

 netized, he asks, is it not "dead?" Devitalize the sar- 

 code (living amoeba), unmagnetize the steel, and both cease 

 to manifest their respective vital or magnetic phenomena. 

 In that respect both are " defunct." " Only," remarks 

 the same authority, " the steel resists much longer the sur- 

 rounding decomposing agencies ;" and, I would add, but 

 this, Owen would regard as a matter of the utmost indif- 

 ference, you can unmagnetize and remagnetize the magnet 

 many times, but you can only kill the amoeba once, and 

 you can never revitalize it. 



In answer to my objections to some of his statements, 

 Professor Owen observes that " there are organisms (Vibrio 

 Rotifer, Macrobiotus, &c.) which we can devitalize and 

 revitalize devive and revive many times."* That such 

 organisms can be revived, all will admit, but probably Pro- 

 fessor Owen will be alone in not recognising considerable 

 distinction between the words revitalizing and reviving. 

 The animalcule that can be revived has never been dead, 

 but that which is not dead cannot be revitalized. The dif- 

 ference between the living state and the dead state is surely 

 absolute. That which has once lost its life can never regain 

 it. The half-drowned man that can be revived has never 

 been dead. 



If Owen still regards the (apparently) dried animalcule 

 as being "as completely lifeless as is the drowned man 



* "The Monthly Microscopical Journal," No. V, May I, 1869, 

 p. 294. 



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