44 HEREDITY. 



their organisms. Inorganic masses lose their identity 

 with the change of their particles. 



Plymouth Rock is composed of atoms of granite ; 

 and if you wash away all these atoms, and little by 

 little substitute others for them, when you have 

 effected a change of physical identity, Plymouth 

 Rock is no longer Plymouth Rock. But here is 

 Webster, who stands on Plymouth Rock to make an 

 oration ; and there is not in his brain, or in any part 

 of his living tissues, a single atom that was there 

 seven years previously, or perhaps not a single one 

 that was there twenty months ago. But Webster is 

 Webster in spite of the frequent loss of his physical 

 identity. Your living being retains its identity in 

 spite of the change of its particles ; your dead mat- 

 ter does not ; and here is one hint of the breadth of 

 the colossal chasm between living and lifeless forms 

 of matter. [Applause.] 



2. In living matter the component atoms are in a 

 state of unstable equilibrium, which chemical and 

 physical forces are constantly endeavoring to overset. 

 In lifeless matter these forces reduce the atoms to a 

 condition of stable equilibrium. 



The tissues of all living things, when exposed to 

 chemical forces alone, tend to revert to the condi- 

 tion of inorganic matter. When life departs from 

 the body, chemical laws reduce the organism to 

 dust. This shows how unstable is the combination 

 produced by the bioplasts, and how inadequate chem- 

 ical forces are to account for the power which in life 

 prevents that equilibrium from being overset. (See 



