22 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 



by particles of matter that resemble one another in 

 every particular that can be ascertained." Again : "It is 

 by the transmission of power to matter, rather than by 

 the bodily transference of millions of particles of matter 

 having particular properties and detached from matter 

 having similar properties, that inheritable peculiarities 

 are handed down from parent to offspring. And it must 

 be borne in mind that structure-forming capacity, which 

 is not even rendered evident until forty or fifty years 

 shall have passed since the original germ-speck origi- 

 nated in the parent, may affect pounds weight of matter, 

 not one grain of which will be acquired until long after 

 every atom of that primitive speck shall have ceased to 

 live and have been removed from the organism. Matter, 

 with its forces, continually comes and goes, while power 

 only remains unimpaired and preserves its identity. 

 Power has been handed down has been transferred 

 from old particles to new particles of matter; but the 

 original matter nay, in the case of some of the largest 

 animals, hundreds weight of matter must have come 

 and gone, while the original power remained." " Vital 

 power works according to predetermined order, and the 

 results of its working are seen in different consequences, 

 at different periods of its action." " Vital power pre- 

 pares for far-off events, and acts as if phenomena, not to 

 occur until after the lapse of a considerable time, had 

 been from the first foreseen. Vital power suspends the 

 action of chemical affinity, and piles material particle 

 above particle, the force of gravity notwithstanding."* 

 12. Sometimes life remains dormant from lack of ap- 



* "Protoplasm," by Dr. L. Beale. 



