12 A DEAD THING CANNOT BE RE- VITALIZED. 



21. A dead thing cannot foe re-vitalized. Prof. 

 Owen has remarked that "there are organisms 

 (Vibrio, Rotifer, Macrobiotus, &c.), which we can de- 

 vitalize and revitalize, devive, and revive many 

 times ! " But, the Professor in this sentence uses 

 two words having different significations, as if they 

 had the same meaning. To revive and revitalize are 

 two very different things. That which is not dead 

 may be revived, but a thing that is dead cannot be 

 revitalized. The animalcule that can be revived has 

 never been dead. The half-drowned man who revives 

 has never died. The difference between the living 

 state and the dead state is absolute, not relative. 

 The matter from which life has once departed cannot 

 be made to live again. 



22. Different kinds of Bioplasm. Since all bio- 

 plasm possesses certain common characters, and the 

 bioplasm of one plant or animal produces formed 

 matter of a very different kind from that resulting 

 from another portion of bioplasm, we must admit 

 that in nature there are different kinds of bioplasm 

 indistinguishable by physics and chemistry, but en- 

 dowed with different powers, nourishing under differ- 

 ent circumstances, consuming different kinds of 

 pabulum, growing at a different rate and under very 

 different conditions as regards temperature, moisture, 

 light, and atmosphere, possessing different degrees of 

 resisting power, and dying under very different cir- 

 cumstances, having varying powers of resisting 

 alterations in external conditions. 



23. Origin of Bioplasm. Concerning the origin 

 of bioplasm, we have no knowledge or experience. 

 Lucretius fancied that atoms came together under 

 certain circumstances, and that thus living things or 

 their seeds were produced. Some of the most ad- 

 vanced minds of the present day entertain a somewhat 

 similar opinion. But both ancients and moderns base 

 their doctrine on conjectures and their own peculiar 



