sstation of these, while the substance remains 
1 the condition of inorganic matter, is no 
proof that they do not appertain to it. 
_ We find nothing, then, in our fundamental 
ideas of matter, to oppose the doctrine that 
vital properties are developed in it by the very 
act of organisation. But we shall consider the 
estion in another point of view. We are 
stantly witnessing examples of the total 
hange effected upon the properties of certain 
forms of matter by their entrance into new 
sombinations. Thus, how completely different 
e the properties of a salt from those of the 
acid and alkali which unite to form it. And we 
re not obliged to have recourse to chemical 
on for cases of such a change; since there are 
_ examples in which mere mechanical admixture 
of the particles of different bodies will produce 
How different, for instance, are the 
erties of gunpowder from those of any of 
S ingredients. ey are all combustible it is 
true; but ina manner as unlike it as each 
other. Does any one think of assigning any 
Other cause to these changes than the act of 
ombination or admixture? Does he seek for 
it in the operation of a saline property super- 
idded to the compound of acid and alkali; or 
of a combustible principle presiding over the 
sombined actions of the nitre, sulphur, and 
harcoal, and directing them to one common 
rbject ? If not, why should he adopt a 
iifferent course in regard to vital properties ? 
In our investigation of natural phenomena, 
never observe a substance endowed with 
properties, without it has undergone some 
hange in its own condition, of which altered 
tate these properties are the necessary attend- 
mts. Unless, therefore, an instance could be 
roduced in which the same form of matter 
all at one time evince properties of which it 
proved to be destitute at another, we have no 
ght to speak of any property as distinct from 
ne matter which exhibits it, or as capable of 
Being superadded to it or subtracted from it. It 
“May be desirable for us to pause here, in order 
examine a case in which it has been alleged 
hat such an addition takes place, and which 
s been used as an analogical argument in 
pport of the doctrine of a vital principle. 
has been commonly said that a living body, 
‘assimilating and organising the nutrient 
atter by which the changes essential to its ex- 
istence are maintained, superadds or communi- 
fates to it by a separate act, those vital proper- 
ties of which it was itself previously possessed ; 
and there is no more difficulty, it has been 
gued, in conceiving how vital properties may 
derstanding how magnetic properties may be 
Superinduced upon iron. But the analogy is 
lased upon a false conception of the latter 
? cess, which is really conformable in cha- 
acter to those by which gravitation or any 
‘other properties of matter are brought into ac- 
tion. For the so-called communication of 
Magnetic properties to iron is nothing more 
than the production of a change in the condi- 
tions of the metal, by which its electric proper- 
nes ave manifested in a manner peculiar to 
tself, and caused to give rise to magnetic 
i 
LIFE. 
be communicated to organised matter, than in ~ 
afi 
powers. If, then, an analogy exists between 
the two processes, (which can scareely be de- 
nied,) it leads us to the belief that, just as mag- 
netic powers are developed in iron, when the 
metallic mass is placed in a condition to mani- 
fest them, so the very act of organization deve- 
lopes vital powers in the tissues which it 
constructs. Forno one can assert that there 
does not exist in every uncombined particle of 
matter which is capable of being assimilated, 
the ability to exhibit vital actions when placed 
in the requisite conditions; in other words, 
when made a part of a living system by the 
process of organisation. It is only the com- 
plexity of the conditions required to manifest 
it, which prevents our recognising this capabi- 
lity as acommon property of matter, or at least 
of those forms of Ei we know by expe- 
rience to enter into the composition of organised 
structures. 
Such are the conclusions to which we are led 
by the general comparison of vital phenomena 
with those of the external world ; and it would 
be difficult, we might say impossible, to prove 
that there is anything in the former which re- 
moves them from the pale of such reasoning. 
In fact, it appears to us that observation of 
them alone would lead to similar inferences. 
We perceive organisation and vital properties 
simultaneously communicated to the germ by 
the structures of its pareat; those vital proper- 
ties confer upon it the means of itself assimi- 
lating, and thereby endowing with vitality, the 
materials supplied by the inorganic world. It 
is very true that in this germ we cannot per- 
ceive a single trace of the future being, the 
various organs and structures of which are 
evolved during its development. But these 
are not evolved in any other way than by the 
progressive extension and complication of the 
parts of the original germ. If we witnessed 
the aggregation of inorganic matter to form a 
head in one place, a trunk in another, and 
limbs in a third, and the subsequent union of 
these, we might be disposed to suspect the 
existence of some invisible agent which di- 
rected and controlled the operation; but we 
can trace nothing in the real process but the 
effect of the properties with which the struc- 
ture of the germ is endowed at the same 
time and by the same act that it is organised 
by the parent. Nor is there anything in 
the subsequent life of the being that op- 
poses such a view; on the contrary, much 
that confirms it. As longas each tissue retains 
its normal constitution, renovated by the ac- 
tions of absorption and deposition by which 
that constitution is preserved, and surrounded 
by those concurrent conditions which a living 
system alone can afford, so long, we have 
reason to believe, it will retain its vital proper- 
ties, and no longer. And just as we have no 
evidence of the existence of vital properties in 
any other form of matter than that denomi- 
nated organised, so have we no reason to be- 
lieve that organised matter can retain its regular 
constitution, and be subjected to its appro- 
priate stimuli, without exhibiting vital actions. 
The advance of pathological science renders it 
every day more probable that derangement in 
