22 EASY LESSONS IN VEGETABLE BIOLOGY. 



place, is entirely different from the power of mere 

 matter. In Chap. II we learned that oxygen, hydro- 

 gen, carbon, and nitrogen are found in every par- 

 ticle of bioplasm, and that sometimes a few other 

 chemical elements occur accidentally. Now these 

 things do not remain quiet in living matter. Atom 

 by atom they quickly pass through it. They are 

 seized by the bioplasm as food, transformed into its 

 own structure, and then are changed into formed 

 material, as starch, wood, gum, oil, etc., in vegetables, 

 and blood, muscle, bone, and nerve in animals. The 

 formed material decays atom by atom and is cast off, 

 to mingle again with the inorganic elements of the 

 world. During all these changes the living being 

 preserves its identity and power. Thus it is possible 

 that an atom of oxygen or hydrogen may be cast off 

 from some of the bioplasts of our own bodies, be 

 wafted by the air to the sides of the Andes, be ap- 

 propriated to the use of the bioplasm in one of the 

 cinchona-trees, and return to us in the form of qui- 

 nine, perhaps to cure us of ague. The possibilities of 

 science exceed the most romantic imagination. The 

 preservation of its identity shows that the life of bio- 

 plasm differs from the atoms which come to and go 

 from it. It does not depend upon the new ones, for 

 it existed without them, nor upon the old ones, for 

 it remains without them. Life is not matter, but 

 matter's master. 



