jo Appendix. 



DR. COCKER'S ABSTRACT OF PAPER ON LIFE. 



[Not furnished to the Committee in time for publication.] 



EXTRACTS FROM, AND A SUMMARY OF, A PAPER 

 "ON LIFE." 



BY E. C. SEAMAN. 

 [Read before the Association December 4th, 1875.] 



Dr. Beale inquires, what is life ? Very few intelligent per- 

 sons will mistake the phenomena of life or the difference be- 

 tween inanimate and living matter; and yet it is not easy to 

 give a definition of life, that will be satisfactory to all the schools 

 of physiology and biology. In my opinion there is in the ma- 

 terial world, a vital element, separate and distinct from all the 

 other elements of nature which is an organizing principle , and con- 

 stitutes the essence of life, and causes the internal action of liv- 

 ing organisms. 



The definitions of life generally given by authors, include 

 phenomena only, which are only the effects of the action of 

 life, operating through the machinery of a living organism. My 

 definition of life is, that it is the power of a vital organizing ele- 

 ment, which forms and maintains living organisms which pro- 

 duces internal action including in animals, digestion and ab- 

 sorption, assimilation and secretion, nutrition and reproduction. 



The whole action of the animal economy, including diges- 

 tion and secretion, assimilation and nutrition, and also the cir- 

 culation of the blood, is carried on antagonistically to chemical 

 action, as well as to gravitation. 



