50 LIFE IN NATURE. 



warfare the chemical forces are constantly victorious, 

 so that the vital forces are driven to the necessity 

 of contenting themselves with the simple work of 

 reparation. As cell after cell is destroyed by 

 chemical forces, others are put in their place by 

 vital forces, until finally the vital forces give up 

 the unequal contest, and death is the result. I do 

 not know if this view is held by the scientific minds 

 of the present day as a fact, but it certainly is 

 generally regarded as the most convenient method 

 of representing all the phenomena of animal life, 

 and, as such, has passed into the best literature 

 of the age. Certain it is, however, that the usual 

 belief, even among the best physiologists, is that 

 the animal tissue is in a state of unstable equili- 

 brium ; that constant decomposition is the result of 

 this instability, and that this decomposition, and this 

 alone, creates the necessity of recomposition in 

 other words, creates the necessity of food. But 

 according to the view which I now propose, decom- 

 position is necessary to develop the force by which 

 organization of food or nutrition is effected, and 

 by which the various purely animal functions of the 



