LIFE AND DEATH. 



BOOK I. 



THE FRONTIERS OF SCIENCE GENERAL THEORIES 

 OF LIFE AND DEATH THEIR SUCCESSIVE 

 TRANSFORMATIONS. 



Chapter I. Early Theories. II. Animism. III. Vitalism. 

 IV. Monism. V. Emancipation of Scientific Research 

 from the Yoke of Philosophy. 



CHAPTER I. 



EARLY THEORIES. 



Animism Vitalism The Physico-Chemical Theory Their 

 Survival and Transformations. 



THE fundamental theories of science are but the ex- 

 pression of its most general results. What, then, is 

 the most general result of the development of 

 physiology or biology that is to say, of that depart- 

 ment of science which has life as its object? What 

 glimpse do we get of the fruit of all our efforts ? The 

 answer is evidently the response to that essential 

 question What is Life ? 



There are beings which we call living beings ; there 

 are bodies which have never been alive inanimate 

 bodies ; and there are bodies which are no longer 

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