562 THE PLANT'S PLACE IN NATURE 



sisted upon b}^ saying that organisms are alive? Doubtless 

 he meant to do so; yet what did he mean by life without any 

 trace of feeling? What sort of feeling can a sponge or a jelly- 

 fish have that we must deny to a climbing-plant, or to a 

 swimming-plant that moves toward the light? Our only 

 evidence that the animal feels is that it responds })y move- 

 ments to certain stimuli. When we watch plants carefully 

 we find that they also respond to similar stimuli. Thus we 

 are left without any distinction between plants and animals; 

 and since what "feeling" stands for in animals is found in 

 plants as well, it would seem that this same "feeling" might 

 be what best distinguishes living from lifeless bodies, and 

 so underlies the various manifestations of life. According to 

 a view which we must examine more at length it is because 

 of their purposeful activities that animals and plants are 

 called living, and because of their coordinated parts, organic. 

 All other bodies are then appropriately termed lifeless or 

 inorganic. This modern view of Nature implies a revised 

 classification which may be conveniently presented in the 

 following tal)uiar form. 



f Inorganic Realm or Mineral Kingdom. 



j ^ • T^ , [ Vegetable Kingdom. 



Organic Realm i . . , ^,. , 

 ^ [ Animal Kingdom. 



198. The inorganic realm, it must be admitted, presents 

 many points of fundamental similarity with the organic. 

 Thus volume, mass, resistance, form, and all such physical 

 properties are common to both realms. Furthermore, all 

 the chemical elements found in animals or plants occur also 

 in minerals, and often in the same combinations. Indeed 

 many of the so-called "organic compounds" once supposed 

 to be formed only within living bodies are now made in 

 chemical laboratories by purely artificial means. Oil of 

 wintergreen, indigo, and madder-red are examples we have 

 already had occasion to notice. Many others might be added, 

 including certain sugars. 



It has been urged that some day it may be possible to manufacture 

 protoplasm artificially, and so break down the distinction now made 



