DEAD AND LIVING BODIES. 3 



compensated for by the simultaneous assimilation of an 

 equivalent amount of fresh matter. 



Thirdly, If our observation be continued for a sufficient 

 length of time, every living body has the power of repro- 

 ducing its like. That is to say, every living body has the 

 power, directly or indirectly, of giving rise to minute germs, 

 which, under proper conditions, will be developed into the 

 likeness of the parent. 



Fourthly, Dead bodies are subject to the physical and 

 chemical forces of the universe, and have no power of 

 suspending these forces, or modifying their action, even for 

 a limited period. On the other hand, living bodies, whilst 

 subject to the same forces, are the seat of something in 

 virtue of which they can override, suspend, or modify the 

 actions of the physical and chemical forces by which dead 

 bodies are exclusively governed. Dead matter is com- 

 pletely passive, unable to originate motion, and equally un- 

 able to arrest it when once originated. Living matter, so 

 long as it is living, is the seat of energy, and can overcome 

 the primary law of the inertia of matter. However humble 

 it may be, and even if permanently rooted to one place, 

 every living body possesses, in some part or other, or at 

 some period of its existence, the power of independent and 

 spontaneous movement — a power possessed by nothing 

 that is dead. Similarly, the chemical forces, which work 

 unresisted amongst the particles of dead matter, are in the 

 living organism directed harmoniously to given ends, their 

 action regulated under definite laws, and their natural work- 

 ing often strikingly modified, or even temporarily suspended, 

 and this as effectually and as perfectly in the humblest as 

 in the highest of created beings. 



As a result of this, dead bodies exhibit nothing but re- 

 actions, and these purely of a physical and chemical na- 

 ture, whilst they show no tendency to pass through periodi- 

 cal changes of state. On the other hand, living bodies exhibit 

 distinct actions, and are pre-eminently characterised by their 



