THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 411 



the vinegar plant in the process is that of determining 

 the absorption of oxygen ; it is active only in virtue of 

 this chemical property, and it can be replaced by a 

 large number of dead materials or parts of plants/ 



Again, in a continuous series of chemical changes, 

 why should an arbitrary division be made ? Why should 

 some changes, which are admitted to be c spontaneous,' 

 be artificially separated from others, when these latter 

 follow in an uninterrupted sequence ? Baron Liebig 

 says * : c From the moment that a piece of muscle is 

 separated from the living body it begins to undergo 

 alteration , after some hours it acquires an alkaline 

 reaction; the coagulable substances are coagulated, the 

 contents of the muscular tubes become more solid and 

 acquire a clouded appearance, with a thickish consist- 

 ence. The muscle contracts and thickens, or rigor 

 mortis takes place ; then, after some time, the stiffness 

 ceases, the acidity augments, and offensively-smelling 

 products make their appearance. ... . . If organized 



ferments have nothing to do with the formation of the 

 first products that appear in the muscles up to the 

 occurrence of rigor mortis and I believe there is no 

 physiologist who thinks they have then it is difficult 

 to understand how the further alterations can be de- 

 termined by them.' 



The transformation of starch into glucose by 

 the agency of sulphuric acid, to which we have 

 already referred, is a process that cannot logically be 



1 Loc. cit., p. 123. 



