ON NUTRITIONAL CIRCULATION 47 



the far distant sideral regions we are made aware by 

 ethereal circulation of the existence of apparently similar 

 bodies to that which we now inhabit, circulating in endless 

 order amid the realms of space, while, geologically, we 

 discover that from the earliest periods of vital activity, or 

 at any rate since that vital activity left its traces behind in 

 the earthy leaves of our mother earth's history, that cease- 

 less circulation has characterised the matter and energy 

 of which that earth is composed, and, geographically, we 

 still observe its continuance, for do we not see it in the 

 endless process of the denudation of the "everlasting 

 hills," and the filling up and repletion of the hungry seas > 

 the reciprocal activities of inorganic and organic matter, 

 the endless activities of vegetable and animal life, and the 

 world-wide conveyance by the great human family in its 

 manifold commercial activities both of the energy and the 

 matter which lies around it, and which they make sub- 

 servient to their purposes ? Above and beyond all these 

 types and forms of circulation, however, rise the vital 

 circulations observed in plants and animals, and away 

 beyond these lies a vista of transcendental circulation into 

 which the most daring imagination can only peer, but 

 where even scientific faith bids it follow with that trust in 

 its ultimate realisation and satisfaction which should ever 

 characterise the earnest enquirer and searcher after truth, 

 whether in the material and visible world, or in the 

 immaterial and invisible ; or, in other words, the temporal 

 and eternal. To return from this metaphysical digression 

 to a farther consideration of the manner and method of 

 physical circulation, as observed in plant and animal life, 

 or organic forms, we are struck with the universality of 

 distribution of certain natural elements, such as the omni- 

 present ether, which we possess in common with all nature, 

 and air and water, which we possess as an individual 

 planet. The first, or ether, does not at present concern 

 us, so we shall direct our attention to the latter two, air 

 and water, and more especially to the last named. Water, 

 so far as observation has reached, or analysis has revealed, 

 is universally present in all organic matter, and may be 

 regarded as a sine qua non in the accomplishment of 

 organic change, and the production of all physical vital 



