LIFE WHAT IS IT? 441 



atomic fecundated condition and arrangement of the con- 

 stituent parts of the germ cell, or ultimate organic unit, 

 is the material foundation on which the mechanism of life 

 rests, through which it works, and by which it carries out 

 its incessant synthetic and analytic, chemico-physiological 

 processes of growth and decay, assimilation and dissipation, 

 integration and disintegration. 



We shall call this ; ' mode of force " sympathetic nerve 

 energy, for want of a simple expressive generic term, and 

 hope that it will be possible to invent a word which will 

 give full verbal expression to the meaning, without detri- 

 ment to the scientific accuracy of the phrase. 



The definition, as here given, implies that this " mode 

 of force," after its operation through latent, vital molecular, 

 and atomic methods, gradually "takes unto itself" a mode 

 of action through the definite fibre-cellular arrangement 

 of the growing or embryonic protoplasm, which fits it 

 the more readily and completely to reach, control, and 

 direct all the vital processes of nutrition, growth, and life, 

 as they become evolved in the life-history of every living 

 higher animal organism. It thus becomes apparent, and 

 indeed natural, that this force should reside in, be induced 

 by, and distributed through, the structure known as the 

 sympathetic nervous system, implying that it is the great and 

 vital function of that system, to be the instrument in the 

 production and disposal of vital energy or life. All organic, 

 or merely vegetative and passive, vital processes are there- 

 fore due to and carried out by the sympathetic system, 

 without which no life is possible, and with the lapse of 

 which death ensues and total disintegration. 



The sympathetic nervous system as developed in man, 

 and the systemic nervous system bearing animals, is thus 

 instrumental in the performance of all organic processes, 

 including the processes of the genesis, growth, and main- 

 tenance of the systemic nervous system, so far as its organic 

 origin and connection are concerned, consequently, the 

 great physiological operations of alimentation, sanguifica- 

 tion, circulation, respiration, nutrition, and elimination come 

 under its control, and are carried out all things being 

 favourable with absolute and automatic (we had almost 

 said mathematical) precision and completeness. Amid all 



