16 THE PRESENT CONDITION 



Thus we come to the conclusion, strange at first 

 sight, that the Matter constituting the living world is 

 identical with that which forms the inorganic world. 

 And not less true is it that, remarkable as are the 

 powers or, in other words, as are the Forces which are 

 exerted by living beings, yet all these forces are either 

 identical with those which exist in the inorganic world, 

 or they are convertible into them ; I mean in just the 

 same sense as the researches of physical philosophers 

 have shown that heat is convertible into electricity, 

 that electricity is convertible into magnetism, magne- 

 tism into mechanical force or chemical force, and any 

 one of them with the other, each being measurable 

 in terms of the other, — even so, I say, that great law is 

 applicable to the living world. Consider why is the 

 skeleton of this horse capable of supporting the masses 

 of flesh and the various organs forming the living body, 

 unless it is because of the action of the same forces of 

 cohesion which combines together the particles of 

 matter composing this piece of chalk ? What is there 

 in the muscular contractile power of the animal but the 

 force which is expressible, and which is in a certain 

 sense convertible, into the force of gravity which it 

 overcomes? Or, if you go to more hidden processes, 

 in what does the process of digestion differ from those 

 processes which are carried on in the laboratory of the 

 chemist ? Even if we take the most recondite and 

 most complex operations of animal life — those of the 

 nervous system, these of late years have been shown to 

 be — I do not say identical in any sense with the elec- 

 trical processes — but this has been shown, that they are 

 in some way or other associated with them ; that is to 



