92 DEATH AND RESURRECTION. 



had exactly the same qualities in one 

 compound as in another. 



However true this may be, is not 

 meat nevertheless something different 

 from limestone, although limestone may 

 easily be found that contains nearly 

 all the elements present in the meat? 

 In starch, sugar, fat, etc., precisely the 

 same elements enter as in water and 

 carbonic acid, but no materialist denies 

 that there are important differences be- 

 tween these two groups of substances. 



What is it, then, that essentially 

 separates the two classes of matter 

 (nothing but the most essential fac- 

 tors concerns us here)? If we ask this 

 question of chemistry, we are answered 

 that this quality is combustibility. Or- 

 ganic matter is combustible; inorganic 

 is not. 



But why should organic matter be 

 combustible? Because fuel is as neces- 

 sary to the organism as to the steam 

 engine. To both their physical source 

 of power is heat, and even the engine 

 receives it through the combustion of 



