94 DEATH AND RESURRECTION. 



combustibles spontaneously? Can car- 

 bonic acid or water through the spoti- 

 taneous activity of physical forces be 

 transformed into sugar, starch, fat, 

 etc.? 



In order to decide if this be possible 

 we must first know what combustion is, 

 and we will therefore briefly explain 

 what this term means. 



Combustion is a chemical process, it 

 is said, and this definition may be true, 

 although it may also be misleading. 

 In daily speech combustion is generally 

 identified with the phenomena of light 

 and the generation of heat, which we 

 immediately observe, but chemical proc- 

 esses can neither be seen nor felt, be- 

 cause they take place in the inner 

 world of matter which hitherto has 

 proved inaccessible to human observa- 

 tion. Yea, chemical processes are so 

 foreign to the experiences of our senses 

 that chemistry, the science of these 

 processes, is entirely founded on the 

 deductions of our reason. The prem- 

 ises that our reason uses for its con- 



I 



