12 WONDERS OF ORGANIC LIFE. 



We read in the Scriptures, u The life of the 

 flesh is in the blood," Lev. xvii. 11 ; and 

 further on, " The life of all flesh is the blood 

 thereof," v. 14. By this, without straining the 

 point, we may infer that it is in the circulating 

 fluid, blood, sanies, or juice, as the case may 

 be, of all organic bodies, that the living prin- 

 ciple exists. Blood is a living fluid, destined to 

 repair the solid body, to afford materials for the 

 building up of every tissue, bone, or muscle, and 

 to recruit itself in a mysterious manner, by the 

 conversion of nutriment into its own character, 

 and by the action of the atmosphere or the 

 water. The very nerves themselves are de- 

 rived from the contributions afforded by the 

 blood. If the heart ceases to act, we die ; if the 

 blood be drained to a certain extent from the 

 system, we die ; if its waste be not duly re- 

 paired, we languish and sink ; if the refresh- 

 ment of the blood, by respiration, be prevented, 

 we die suffocated. Stop the circulation of a 

 plant, ring the bark of a tree with the knife, 

 and every part above fades, withers, and 

 perishes. Some animals of the lower orders 



electric muscular current in living and wholly uninjured 

 bodies. He shows that the human body, through the medium 

 of a copper wire, can cause a magnetic needle at a distance to 

 be deflected at pleasure, first in one, then in the opposite di- 

 rection. I have witnessed these movements produced at 

 pleasure, and have had the gratification of seeing thereby 

 great and unexpected light thrown on phenomena, to which I 

 had laboriously and hopefully devoted several years of my 

 youth."— Humboldt. 



Within the last few years this interesting subject has 

 received great attention, and many curious facts have been 

 elicited, of physiological importance, but into which we can- 

 not here fully enter. 



