24 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 



is far from being so constant an attendant upon all the 

 actions of the body as some have taught, yet it goes on 

 with great rapidity and uniformity. The bioplasts, or 

 living particles, of each tissue in the body are changed 

 into formed material, and then pass into decay, while 

 other bioplasts take their places and keep up the active 

 dance of life. When the spiritual cause, or origin, of 

 vital phenomena is removed, the molecular activities of 

 the body do not all cease at once, but gradually. Hair 

 will continue to grow on a corpse, and the secretion of 

 rattle-snake poison, or of other glands, continues for a 

 short time after death. Indeed, the circulation of blood 

 has been witnessed in a section of mouse's kidney some 

 time after it had been removed from the body. Yet, 

 uninfluenced by the energizing spirit, the vital activities 

 gradually cease, and decomposition ensues. 



14. To return to our example from the Infusoria, the 

 life-history of the Vorticella demonstrates both the spir- 

 itual origin of life and the work of a Supreme Intelli- 

 gence. The evidence of design in its construction is 

 quite apparent. The extensile threads and vibsatile 

 cilia have, plainly enough, an object. They subserve 

 prehension of food and the preservation of existence. 

 Even the contractile vesicle, whose exact purpose we do 

 not know, impresses our minds with the fact that it serves 

 some purpose. This design is connected with some- 

 thing different from the material atoms of the organism, 

 but which controls those atoms, since there is foresight 

 of future changes, and provision for future changes in 

 the life-history which will occur after the removal of all 

 the present material. The self-division of the Vorticella, 



