OF NUTRITION; OR, WHY WE GROW. 45 



It is transferred to the one, while it ceases, and 

 because it ceases, in the other. 



In this instance the law of growth is presented to 

 us. Matter is rendered organic, either through the 

 decomposition of other organic matter, or through the 

 medium of chemical processes which resemble that 

 decomposition in giving out force. The nutrition of 

 living Bodies is, in brief, an illustration of the axiom 

 that action and re-action are equal and opposite. 



This is easily perceived if the conception of 

 the organic state as involving an opposition to 

 chemical affinity is kept before the mind. The 

 decomposition of one portion of organic matter may 

 cause other matter to become organic, as the fall 

 of one portion of matter may cause another portion 

 to rise. The downward movement generates force, 

 the upward absorbs it; the fallen body represents 

 the inorganic, the raised body the organic state. Or 

 it is as the downward motion of a pendulum deve- 

 lops the force from which its upward movement 

 results ; or as a heated body contracts while it cools, 

 and causes expansion in the things around. But in 

 truth, the possible illustrations are innumerable, for a 



