LIVING AND NON-LIVING MATTES. 17 



CHAPTER III. 



DIFFERENCES BETWEEN LIVING AND NON-LIVING 

 MATTER. 



1. THE jelly-like bioplasm described as existing in 

 all kinds of vegetables and animals, and forming all 

 sorts of organic materials, is so different in power 

 from non-living matter as to compel us to believe 

 that it contains something more than mere matter. 

 Each kind, or species, of living being can do some- 

 thing which is peculiar to itself, yet there are certain 

 particulars in which all kinds agree, or things which 

 all sorts of bioplasm can do, but which no matter can 

 do which is not alive. 



2. All bioplasm has spontaneous motion. Most 

 vegetables are fixed to one spot, but the living matter 

 in their tissues is just as much in motion as the bio- 

 plasm of the most active animals, so that the same 

 things may be said of either animal or vegetable bio- 

 plasm. Non-living matter is passive. It has inertia.* 

 It can neither originate, suspend, nor destroy motion. 

 It can only transmit motion, or be moved. But bio- 

 plasm, or living matter, has primary energy, and can 

 overcome inertia. Its motions are spontaneous, or 



* A property of matter which causes it to remain in a state of rest 

 or of motion. 

 2 



