THE DYNAMICS OF CIRCULATION 185 



vacuole, to the primary alimentary canal and the various 

 other excretionary orifices of the body generally. 



All these vital circulatory phenomena are thus, to a 

 great extent, antagonistic to the great Jaw of gravitation, 

 and it is only when pathological conditions are evolved, 

 that that law is able to reassert, or manifest, its powers, in 

 opposition to those of vitality, and health ; therefore it is 

 only on the complete arrest of vitality, or at death, that that 

 law resumes a complete sway over organised matter. 



In this connection, however, it may be pointed out, as 

 an indispensable condition of life and health, that the 

 complete and effective removal of effete, or worn-out, 

 organic material, is absolutely essential, and that that 

 condition is provided by the law of gravitation, in that 

 it immediately removes organic debris as it is detached 

 from, or ejected by, the evacuant machinery of the body. 

 Moreover, we are further warranted in concluding that 

 thus, the law of gravitation is providing a vis a fronte^ 

 which is effective in securing the necessary external void, 

 or voids, for persistent forward suction and evacuation 

 and the maintenance of a continuous intra-corporeal 

 circulation, masticatory, digestive, sanguineous, nutritive, 

 and excretional, with the many connecting and subsidiary 

 circulations, making up the great organic circulatory 

 whole. Organic opposition and antagonism to the law 

 of gravitation ultimately end, in entire inorganic acquies- 

 cence in the inexorable requirements of that law, and 

 what has, for a shorter, or longer, period, been in active 

 organisation and functional use becomes reduced to its 

 original inorganic elements, in which it may again assume, 

 under the influence of other organic forces, another term 

 of organic existence ; and so the great problems of life 

 and death are continually being solved in the experiences 

 of, at any rate, the surface layers of the earth's crust a 

 conclusion which witnesses once more to the truth of our 

 expression and contention : circulatio circulationum omnia 

 circulatio^ and that the whole universe is in a state of 

 flux, and that nothing is at rest, really, whatever it may 

 be, relatively. 



Making a somewhat larger generalisation, on these 

 lines, we feel, in conclusion, warranted in stating, that life 



