DEATH AND RESURRECTION. 77 



become another. Digestion is a purely 

 chemical process. The stomach of an 

 animal may well be compared to a 

 chemical retort, where the substances 

 there mixed are decomposed and com- 

 posed exactly according to the general 

 laws of chemical affinity. 



These facts, which may be multiplied 

 ad infinitum, enable us to understand 

 that the difference between organic and 

 inorganic is non-essential, and that 

 therefore every living being may be 

 considered a chemical laboratory, 

 whence we arrive at the following re- 

 sult: 



Because daily experience teaches us that 

 all organisms consist of the same atoms as 

 does inorganic nature, although in differ- 

 <nt compositions, therefore no specific or- 

 ganic force, no life-force, can exist. This 

 latter is not a principle, but a result. 

 When organic substance assimilates in- 

 organic and brings it into its own char- 

 acteristic condition, this is not done 

 through a specific force, but through a 

 kind of infection, whereby the molec- 



