CHEMICAL PHENOMENA IN LIFE 



mere orderless homogeneous combination of dif- 

 ferent substances or a peculiar substance in 

 itself. On the contrary, it renders it very probable 

 that structural characteristics play a most im- 

 portant part in living protoplasm, perhaps form 

 the essential trait in the organ of cell-life. Ex- 

 perimental Biochemistry of our days, however, has 

 been able to show that the characteristics of living 

 protoplasm are not all destroyed at once, when a 

 living organ is ground to a pulp. If care is taken 

 to ward off the effects of microbes which rapidly 

 develop in the remains of the tissues, by adding 

 some toluol or chloroform, a series of reactions 

 which are quite peculiar to life can be still observed 

 in the disorganised pulpy masses. This method of 

 preserving organs which have been minutely 

 ground down is much employed in modern 

 physiology. We call it Autolysis. It is possible 

 to prove that autolytic mixtures show the same 

 chemical processes as we find in the digestion of 

 food, in respiration and even in excretion. There- 

 fore we cannot concede that protoplasm is at 

 once destroyed when it is ground down as minutely 

 as possible. The death of protoplasm is no sudden 

 process. The reactions of life cease slowly and 

 successively one after the other. 



Theories which maintain that protoplasm is 



merely effective in life thfough its structure are 



generally classified as the Engine-Theories of Life. 



We see that such theories are right essentially, 



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