426 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



change in the locality and relative position of the 

 elementary particles of animal substances 1 , outside the 

 organism., be capable of exerting a very definite in- 

 fluence upon a number of organic substances which are 

 brought in contact with them ; if those substances are 

 thereby decomposed, while new compounds are formed 

 from their elements; and if it be considered that the 

 class of substances susceptible of such changes as take 

 place in fermentation, comprises all those which are 

 the constituents of the food of man and animals, who 

 can doubt that the same causes act one of the most 

 important parts in the vital process, or that they have 

 a powerful share in the alterations which the materials 

 of food undergo when they are converted into fat, 

 blood, or constituents of organs 2 ? We know, indeed, 

 that there is in all parts of the " living " animal body an 

 incessant change going on ; that living particles of this 

 body are eliminated; that their constituents, whether 

 fibrin, albumen, gelatin, or whatever else they may be, 

 rearrange themselves as new compounds; that their 

 elements unite to form new products. In accordance 

 with our experience, we must presume that in virtue of 

 this activity, there is at all places where it obtains, and 

 corresponding to its direction and intensity, a parallel 

 alteration in the character and composition of con- 



1 Belonging to the class known as ' ferments.' 



2 This view was very clearly expressed by Mr. Hinton in his ' Life in 

 Nature,' pp. 41, 42 an interesting work, which I have only seen since 

 this Chapter was in type. 



