OF NUTRITION; OR, WHY WE GROW. 57 



opposed to chemical force, which is the nutrition of 

 the living body ; then again a chemical change, 

 which is its function or decay. So in the fountain 

 there is, first, the gravitating motion of the water, 

 then the upward motion due thereto ; and then again 

 a gravitating motion. 



And thus, too, we may discern in what the special 

 characteristic of the vital process consists. It does 

 not lie in the forces at work, nor in the laws accord- 

 ing to which they operate. Physical life is a result 

 of the natural laws, and not an exception to them ; 

 but the conditions are peculiar. As in a fountain the 

 force of gravity, so in a living body the force of 

 chemical affinity, receives a particular direction; 

 and instead of producing heat, or electricity, or 

 motion, as it does in the inorganic world, it is made 

 to produce a force which directly opposes its own 

 effects. This special direction of the effect of 

 chemical force is the peculiarity of life. 



But why the peculiar substances which constitute 

 organic bodies should be formed ; why the chemical 

 force, thus acting, should produce the albumen, 

 fibrine, and gelatine, of which animals chiefly con- 



