PART II. 



THE BUILDING OF THE LIVING 

 MACHINE. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE FACTORS CONCERNED IN THE BUILDING OF 

 THE LIVING MACHINE. 



HAVING now outlined the results of our study 

 into the mechanism of the living machine, we turn 

 our attention next to the more difficult problem 

 of the method by which this machine was built. 

 From the facts which we have been considering 

 in the last two chapters it is evident that the 

 problem we have before us is a mechanical rather 

 than a chemical one. Of course, chemical forces 

 lie at the bottom of vital activity, and we must 

 look upon the force of chemical affinity as the 

 fundamental power to which the problems must be 

 referred. But a chemical explanation will evident- 

 ly not suffice for our purpose ; for we have abso- 

 lutely no reason for believing that the phenomena 

 of life can occur as the results of the chemical 

 properties of any compound, however complex. 

 The simplest known form of matterwhich manifests 

 life is a machine, and the problem of the origin of 

 life must be of the origin of that machine. Are 



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