49 LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 



a plentiful supply of healthy and well- vivified blood ; 

 for it is out of the blood that the solid body is re- 

 pairedreproduced. 



Another proof of the evanescence of contractility 

 is, the physical weakness which invariably attends 

 total inaction. 



Another law of contractility is this : It is in 

 PERPETUAL STRIFE with the laws of fermentation 

 and putrefaction. This law arises necessarily out 

 of what I have just said; viz. that life is a con- 

 trivance to withdraw, for a time, organized beings 

 from the influence of fermentation and putrefac- 

 tion. It is proved also by the fact, that healthy 

 living beings cannot putrefy that the universal 

 solvent, the gastric juice itself, has no power to 

 dissolve living animals when accidentally taken 

 into the stomach that living beings, in whom life 

 and strength (that is, contractility) are at a very 

 low degree indeed, as in putrid fevers, do begin 

 to putrefy partially and that all beings who have 

 lived are instantly acted upon by the fermenta- 

 tive and putrefactive forces, as soon as contrac- 

 tility has left them : observe, NOT as soon as life 

 has left them ; for contractility will sometimes re- 

 main, for a short time, after life has ceased. Con- 

 tractility, you must remember, is not life, but one 



