THE PHYSICAL LAW OF MATTER 163 



of the matter in question. In this process we see con- 

 currently in operation modes of force which we may 

 designate, mechanical, chemical, and physiological, or vital, 

 the result being the maintenance of the materio-dynamic 

 equipoise whereby the continuance of life is secured. 

 This process, moreover, is one and the same, in its mode of 

 operation, from that instant when the life of the organism 

 takes its origin, in the primary vital spermo-germ arrange- 

 ment of its primordial atoms, until the conditions of life 

 no longer permit of its continuance. In this process, or, 

 we had almost said, procession, one atom, or molecule, of 

 matter, follows another in regular order ; so that when 

 the first has become "worn" out in the process, the next in 

 the succession takes its place, with the ordered continuity 

 of unending circulation, or so long as the required vital 

 conditions continue in existence. 



All this necessitates the constant onward movement of 

 the circulated matter, and does not permit of its return, 

 hence we must regard the processes alluded to as being 

 conducted on these lines, and we must be prepared to see 

 in our experimental investigation and study of them, 

 that "sequence of events" which must inevitably flow 

 from the practical working, or operation, of such physio- 

 logical factors. We must, therefore, from this circulatory 

 sequence and onward movement, also recognise the fact 

 that no self-pollution, or autotoxis, can be permitted, if the 

 operations involved are effected perfectly and that physio- 

 logical health, if they be so effected, must follow with 

 unerring certainty. 



In other words, we see, in the operation of these pro- 

 cesses on the lines which we have attempted to explain, 

 that nature does not permit, in her untrammelled condition, 

 the pollution of the nutritive material which she is con- 

 veying to the living and working structures of the body, 

 by the effete materials resulting from the living and 

 working condition, of that body ; but, on the contrary, 

 that she provides that these latter, the effete, must be 

 " moved on," or onwards, by her vital police, or safeguards, 

 before she gives up the former, or nutritive. In this way 

 only is it possible for the dire results of autotoxis to be 

 averted, and the condition of health to be maintained. 



