444 BIOLOGICAL PHYSICS 



which they are circulated and supplied by the systemic 

 nervous system to its related cutaneous and muscular 

 textures. 



Therefore, we conclude that the whole process of nutri- 

 tion, apart from its purely chemico- physiological or meta- 

 bolic aspects which may be said to be moleculo-dynamic, 

 and really not exceptional is effected through nerve agency, 

 acting along the lines of a minutely vascular nervine 

 organisation, by capillary and osmotic circulation and 

 molecular disposition and interchange of the elements of 

 the nutritive pabulum, through the universal cell economy 

 and related fibrous processes, in virtue of which the per- 

 manent structures are laid down, or built up, and maintained, 

 and the residual and detached materials removed. 



All these statements do not yet enable us to answer the 

 question, "What is life ?" but they enable us to answer 

 the question, "When does life begin?" Thus, definite 

 or specific organic life begins in the individual organism on 

 the fertilisation of the ovum, and on the mitotic division 

 or the kariokinetic detachment of a cell fragment ; but life 

 began when the first molecules of inorganic matter were 

 imbued with vital energy, or when the long sleep of the 

 inorganic world of matter was broken by the effulgent 

 dawn of the coming organic day, and when first the 

 " living form " struggled into primitive existence to per- 

 petuate the line of living forms by a process of continuous 

 evolution and advancement, in the manner and style of 

 organic design and structure, until completed by the 

 appearance of the last, and highest form, man himself. 



Life, beginning thus with the first vitalisation of inorganic 

 or non-living matter, has continued, according to scientific 

 teaching and observation, in one unbroken but diversified 

 sequence of organic forms, to overspread the earth's crust, 

 clothing and reclaiming it and fitting it for the abode of 

 man ; each living unit being preceded by and detached 

 from its parent unit or units, and reproducing its parental 

 characteristics, while being moulded by its environment, 

 to fit it for its advancing, or higher destiny, in the great 

 work of " evolution " by " survival of the fittest." The 

 first living form, in a sense, therefore, still lives in its 

 countless descendants, vegetable and animal, and will 



