8 WONDERS OF ORGANIC LIFE. 



lation, or by the infliction of agony ; but even 

 then, the question reverts — What has quitted 

 the body, leaving it a prey to the operative 

 influence of the laws of chemical dissolution ? 

 The whole subject, we are forced again to con- 

 fess, is shrouded in mystery. This we know, 

 that vitality and organization (a convenient 

 term, if understood in its true sense) are ever 

 associated — that when vitality becomes extinct, 

 organization retains an aspect only, waiting for 

 the laws of chemistry to do their office — and 

 that living beings only can produce living suc- 

 cessors. One thing is certain, that between 

 living bodies and the laws of chemical affinity 

 there is, as far as vitality is concerned, a great 

 antagonism, for organic resolution without com- 

 mensurate reparation is the consequence only 

 of death. Nevertheless, at the same time that 

 we urge this grand principle, we acknowledge 

 that chemical actions are perpetually in opera- 

 tion in all living bodies, but under the mystic 

 laws of the vital energy. It must be at once 

 apparent, then, that chemical operations or 

 changes, however intricate, however precise, 

 displayed by organic bodies, cannot be the 

 original cause of vitality, nor yet be, in and 

 of themselves, the vital principle. The same 

 observation applies to that recondite agent 

 which we term electricity, galvanic action, or 

 electro-magnetism. No action in the organic 

 living frame takes place without involving gal- 

 vanic or electric changes. The nervous system 

 is a wonderful galvanic apparatus, but life is 



