NOTE. 409 



at the close of my work entitled " Versuche uber die gereizte Muskel 

 und Nervenfaser, nebst Vermuthimgen liber den chemischen Process 

 des Lebens in der Thier und Pflanzcnwelt" (bd; ii. s. 430-436), I 

 already declared that I by no means regarded the existence of such 

 peculiar vital forces as demonstrated. Since that time, I have no 

 longer called peculiar forces what may possibly only be the operation 

 of the concurrent action of the several long-known substances and 

 their material forces. We may, however, deduce from the chemical 

 relations of the elements a safer definition of animate and inani- 

 mate substances than the criteria which are taken from voluntary 

 motion, from the circulation of fluids within solids, from internal 

 appropriation and from the fibrous arrangements of the elements. 

 I term that an animated substance "of which the parts being 

 separated by external agency alter their state of composition after 

 the separation, all other and external relations continuing the same." 

 This definition is merely the enunciation of a fact. The equilibrium 

 of the elements in animated or organic matter is preserved by their 

 being parts of a whole. One organ determines another, one gives to 

 another its temperature and tone or disposition; in all which, these 

 and no other affinities are operative. Thus in organized beings all 

 is reciprocally means and end. The rapidity with which organic 

 parts, separated from a complete living organism, change that state of 

 combination, differs greatly, according to the degree of their original 

 dependence, and to the nature of the substance. Blood of animals, 

 which varies much in the different classes, suffers change sooner than 

 the juices of plants. Funguses generally decay sooner than leaves 

 of trees, and muscle more easily than the cutis. 



Bones, the elementary structure o which has been very recently 

 recognized, hair of animals, wood in plants or trees, the feathery 

 appendages of seeds of plants (Pappus), are not inorganic or without 

 life ; but even in life they approximate to the state in which they 

 are found after their separation from the rest of the organism. The 

 higher the degree of vitality or susceptibility of an animated sub- 

 stance, the more rapidly does organic change in its composition ensue 

 after separation. " The aggregate total of the cells is an organism, 

 and the organism lives so long as the parts are active in subservience 

 to the whole. In opposition to lifeless or inorganic, organic nature 

 35 



