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pend on organization. Mr. Hunter, who 

 so patiently and accurately examined the 

 different links of this great chain, which 

 seems to connect even man with the 

 common matter of the universe, was of 

 this opinion. In speaking of the pro- 

 perties of life, he says, it is something 

 that prevents the chemical decomposition, 

 to which dead animal and vegetable matter 

 is so prone ; that regulates the temperature 

 of the bodies it inhabits, and is the cause 

 of the actions we observe in them. All 

 these circumstances, though deduced from 

 an extensive contemplation of the subject, 

 may, however, be legitimately drawn from 

 observations made on the egg. A living 

 egg does not putrefy under circumstances 

 that would rapidly cause that change in 

 a dead one. The former resists a degree 

 of cold that would freeze the latter. And 

 when subjected to the genial warmth of 

 inciibation, the matter of it begins to 



c 



