Animal Causes. 225 



gravity, and in the case even of a corpse, exert 

 energy, for the body in decomposition is continuously 

 "adjusting its internal relations to its external rela- 

 tions," the rapidity of decomposition corresponding 

 to the temperature and state of purity of the atmos- 

 phere. 



The animal life, on the other hand, comprises 

 those more ephemeral motions, associated with the 

 temporary locomotion and mechanism of the animal 

 as an individual body, and is caused by and origin- 

 ates solely in its magnetic animal battery in the 

 stomach. 



The conditions of mechanical life in the animal 

 organism are thus in essentials, precisely similar to 

 the conditions of mechanical life in the locomotive. 

 In the animal stomach (furnace, boiler, and voltaic 

 battery in one) the fuel or food is burnt, digested, or 

 oxidised, thereby generating energy which tingles all 

 through the body as heat, electricity, vitality, or life. 

 The food on oxidation is converted into blood, which 

 bathes the internal machinery by means of the veins 

 and arteries, and executes all needed repairs in bone, 

 muscle, and nerve. The refuse fi;om the stomach is 

 excreted, but the waste from the muscles is either 

 exuded by the pores of the skin, or thrown as car- 

 bonic acid and water into the blood, where it is 

 ultimately purified at the lungs. 



The whole of this mechanical motion called animal 

 life is thus as entirely automatic as the burning of 

 fuel, the generation of steam, and the development 



