OF NUTRITION; OR, WHY WE GROW. 55 



descent proceeding from the same uniform law or 

 principle of gravitation." May not a fountain, 

 indeed, picture to us the relations of the forces in 

 the organic body ? How mysterious a fountain 

 would be to an observer unacquainted with the 

 law that water will find its level, and that a gravi- 

 tating motion may produce a motion opposed to 

 gravity ! How like its continued upward and down- 

 ward flow, with its hidden source, is to the inter- 

 mingled processes of life; two opposites bound up 

 in one, and presenting to us the effects of a single 

 cause ! For chemical force is to the organic body 

 as gravity is to the fountain, the source of all its 

 actions, opposite though they are. 



In a fountain the operation of gravity is regu- 

 lated, and directed in a certain way, so as to pro- 

 duce, in the elevation of the water, an effect directly 

 opposed to its own primary action; in life, the 

 operation of chemical force is regulated and directed 

 in certain ways, so as to produce, in nutrition, 

 results directly opposed to its primary action. Thus 

 chemical affinity, at the same time, produces and 

 destroys the living frame, as gravity at the same 



