THE MECHANISM ONLY OF LIFE 



Thus should we look upon the phenomena of life : 

 The living creature, plant or animal is a mechanism 

 for transforming other forms of energy into that form 

 called Life. In its lowest and simplest form, so far 

 as our senses or our knowledge can inform us, the 

 creature is without differentiation of parts or organs ; 

 is only a congeries of molecules, formed from a few 

 chemical atoms : carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, 

 sulphur and phosphorus, that make a substance called 

 plasmodium, producable only by inheritance from a 

 pre-existing, similar, living creature. It has not neces- 

 sarily any structure or difference of parts within it- 

 self, but has, even in its simplest form, the potentiality 

 or capacity of serving as the medium by which the 

 energy of the Ether is transformed into new forms, 

 among which are sensation, consciousness and volition. 



The potentiality of life seems to exist physically 

 apart from the activity of life itself in the spores of 

 the lower forms, and even in the seeds of the higher 

 plants. If kept dry and cool, the latter can be pre- 

 served unchanged for many years. The germs of 

 many of the Bacteria will withstand uninjured a 

 temperature somewhat above that of boiling water, 

 and will afterwards develop into life under lower 

 temperatures and favorable conditions with their pe- # 

 culiar and morbific properties unchanged. This per- 

 sistence of life, or rather the continuance of the 

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