OF NUTRITION; OR, WHY WE GROW. 41 



form ammonia. Similarly, the sulphur and phos- 

 phorus select some other ingredients of the albumen, 

 or of the atmosphere, to unite with them into simpler 

 compounds. In time, the process is complete, and 

 from being an organic substance the albumen has 

 wholly passed into a variety of inorganic sub- 

 stances. In doing so, it has given out a certain 

 amount of force, chiefly in the form of heat (the 

 temperature of decaying bodies is well known to be 

 above that of the surrounding air) ; and this force, if 

 the albumen had formed part of a muscle or a nerve, 

 would have been operative in the function of the 

 same. Now it is on account of this force, which is in 

 the albumen, and is not in the inorganic substances 

 which are formed by its decay, that it is called 

 organic. It could not be albumen without some force 

 having made it so. Hydrogen, and nitrogen, and 

 carbon, and oxygen would no more form albumen 

 (against their tendency to form carbonic acid and 

 water and ammonia), without some force compelling 

 them, than a stone would poise itself in the air 

 (against its tendency to fall to the ground), without 

 some force compelling it. 



