THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 83 



scope was found to be as nearly as possible what it 

 would have been had it appeared solely under the old 

 name of c Organic Chemistry.' 



Thus the Matter of living things, the combinations 

 which they are capable of producing, have no distin- 

 guishing peculiarity they can be built up by the che- 

 mist in his laboratory the mysterious agency of Life is 

 now no longer all essential. This knowledge is a 

 great gain to science, and it harmonizes well with 

 our conclusion in the last chapter, that there is no 

 evidence whatever for a belief in the existence of 

 a peculiar c vital force ' a something independent of 

 matter, and not convertible with the ordinary physical 

 forces. 



It will now be necessary for us to furnish some 

 explanations as to the nature and composition of 

 organizable matter in general- of those substances in 

 fact which enter into the composition of living things 

 and in so doing we shall avail ourselves freely of the 

 writings of those who are best entitled to speak on the 

 subject. 



Organizable matter always contains, as principal and 

 fundamental ingredients, carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, 

 and nitrogen, and to these are often added traces of 

 sulphur and phosphorus. The first four elements are, 

 however, all-essential, and it is especially worthy of 

 remark that no less than three of them are gaseous. 

 Mr. Herbert Spencer says 1 : c When we remember 



1 Principles of Biology/ vol. i. chap, i., ' Organic Matter.' This and 

 G 2 



