THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 411 



the vinegar plant in the process is that of determining 

 the absorption of oxygen ; it is active only in virtue of 

 this chemical property, and it can be replaced by a 

 large number of dead materials or parts of plants/ 



Again, in a continuous series of chemical changes, 

 why should an arbitrary division be made ? Why should 

 some changes, which are admitted to be c spontaneous,' 

 be artificially separated from others, when these latter 

 follow in an uninterrupted sequence ? Baron Liebig 

 says l : c From the moment that a piece of muscle is 

 separated from the living body it begins to undergo 

 alteration , after some hours it acquires an alkaline 

 reaction; the coagulable substances are coagulated, the 

 contents of the muscular tubes become more solid and 

 acquire a clouded appearance, with a thickish consist- 

 ence. The muscle contracts and thickens, or rigor 

 mortis takes place ; then, after some time, the stiffness 

 ceases, the acidity augments, and offensively-smelling 



products make their appearance If organized 



ferments have nothing to do with the formation of the 

 first products that appear in the muscles up to the 

 occurrence of rigor mortis and I believe there is no 

 physiologist who thinks they have then it is difficult 

 to understand how the further alterations can be de- 

 termined by them.' 



The transformation of starch into glucose by 

 the agency of sulphuric acid, to which we have 

 already referred, is a process that cannot logically be 



1 Loc. cit., p. 123. 



