76 DEATH AND RESURRECTION. 



nature. We have seen that forces are 

 nothing but qualities and motions of 

 the smallest particles of matter, the 

 atoms, with which these forces are in- 

 variably and inseparably conjoined. An 

 atom therefore under all circum- 

 stances can only perform the same 

 work, develop the same forces, produce 

 the same effects, whether it belongs for 

 the moment to an organic or to an in- 

 organic composition. Respiration, di- 

 gestion, the process of growing and 

 segregation are all chemical reactions. 

 Oxygen, hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen 

 are composed and decomposed within 

 the organic body in accordance with 

 the same laws that govern them out- 

 side. 



We have also learned more perfectly 

 how nourishment is transformed into 

 organic tissues, and we know that 

 through different channels it leaves the 

 body in precisely the same quantity as 

 it entered, partly unmodified and partly 

 in other forms and compositions. No 

 one atom has meanwhile been lost or 



