THE BREATH OF LIFE 



has two less atoms of hydrogen in its composition. 

 Modify your chemistry a little, add or subtract an 

 atom or two, more or less, of this or that gas, and 

 dead matter thrills into life, or living matter sinks to 

 the inert. In other words, life is the gift of chemistry, 

 its particular essence is of the chemical order — a 

 bold inference from the fact that there is no life 

 without chemical reactions, no life without oxida- 

 tion. Yet chemical reactions in the laboratory can- 

 not produce life. With Le Dantec, biology, like geo- 

 logy and astronomy, is only applied mechanics and 

 chemistry. 



in 



Such is the result of the rigidly objective study of 

 life — the only method analytical science can pur- 

 sue. The conception of vitality as a factor in itself 

 answers to nothing that the objective study of life 

 can disclose; such a study reveals a closed circle of 

 physical forces, chemical and mechanical, into which 

 no immaterial force or principle can find entrance. 

 "The fact of being conscious," Le Dantec says with 

 emphasis, "does not intervene in the slightest de- 

 gree in directing vital movements." But common 

 sense and everyday observation tell us that states 

 of consciousness do influence the bodily processes — 

 influence the circulation, the digestion, the secre- 

 tions, the respiration. 



An objective scientific study of a living body yields 



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