CHAPTER XII 



Living 

 thing and 

 machine 



LIVINGS THINGS AND MACHINES 



Living Things and Machines Their Differences Spencer 

 and Weismann A " Verbal Explanation." 



WE have now studied a number of the funda- 

 mental activities of living bodies and have seen 

 that they include many features which are not 

 discoverable in non-living substances. That 

 there may be a superficial similarity between 

 some of the circumstances of the two kinds of 

 matter may possibly be conceded, but when 

 carefully examined it seems that the funda- 

 mental differences are far greater than the 

 surface resemblances. 



" The structure of a machine," says Stras- 

 burger,* a very distinguished German botanist, 

 " might be called its organisation ; and the 

 fact that, when provided with a store of energy, 

 it can be started by the opening of a valve to 

 perform work conformable to its structure - 

 this property might be called its sensibility. 

 But the living substance is entirely distin- 

 guished from the dead machine by the ability 

 to provide itself with the energy needful for 



* Das Protoplasma nnd die. Rcizbarkeit, 1891, s. 24, 

 192 





