40 LIFE IN NATUEE. 



its earlier stages, and waste is repaired when it has 

 attained its perfect stature ? How these materials 

 are shaped into characteristic forms is a future ques- 

 tion. We will take our fagot stick by stick. 



To make clear our meaning, let us suppose our- 

 selves looking at a portion of the white of an egg 

 albumen, as it is called. This has no power of per- 

 forming actions ; it has no defined shape ; it is con- 

 tained in the shell as it might be in any other vessel ; 

 it has not even any structure, such as fibres or cells, 

 which the microscope reveals ; it is simply a viscous 

 fluid. Yet it is an organic substance. Life is in it. 

 It is, indeed, the basis of all animal structures, and 

 the great source from which they are formed and 

 nourished. That which constitutes it living is the 

 mode in which its elements are arranged. It consists 

 mainly of three gases (hydrogen, oxygen, and nitro- 

 gen), and one solid (carbon), with small quantities of 

 other bodies, of which the chief are sulphur, phos- 

 phorus, and lime. But these elements are not 

 arranged according to their ordinary affinities. Ex- 

 posed to the air, albumen decays ; the carbon unites 

 with oxygen and forms water, and with nitrogen to 



