58 LIFE IN NATURE. 



sist, or the woody fibre which makes up the mass 

 of vegetable structures ; is a separate question, and 

 one on which at present much darkness rests. Not 

 that it is a peculiar mystery. The formation of 

 water from hydrogen and oxygen, or of chalk from 

 carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and lime, in obedience 

 to their chemical affinities, is no more understood 

 than the formation of albumen from these and other 

 elements in opposition to the affinities which draw 

 them another way. When the chemist has told us 

 why two gases, chemically united, should form 

 water, he may ask the physiologist with a good 

 grace why four or five gases and solids, vitally 

 united, should form albumen. These two facts rest 

 on the same basis. The relation of what the chemist 

 calls " elements " to the substances formed by their 

 union, is one on which science is yet almost wholly 

 silent. Meanwhile the relations of the forces con- 

 cerned are capable of a separate demonstration, and 

 we need not delay, until we know why albumen or 

 fibrine should be formed, our inquiry into the laws 

 displayed in their formation. 



