IS LIFE UNIVERSAL? 129 



which are equivalent to decay, and which resemble 

 it in producing force. 



II. The body, thus growing, receives its FORM or 

 structure from the conditions under which it is 

 placed in its development. Under the influence of 

 the forces which are operating upon it, and which 

 excite its growth, the germ expands (for the most 

 part in certain directions more powerfully than in 

 others) ; and by the varying resistances it meets in 

 this expansion, is moulded into its specific form. 



III. This form adapts it to its FUNCTIONS. The 

 body tends to decompose, or to undergo chemical 

 changes which give rise to force. The absorption of 

 power in nutrition, and the evolution of it again in 

 the decomposition of the tissues (the muscles, brain, 

 &c.), "is precisely analogous to that which takes 

 place in forcibly separating the poles of two magnets, 

 retaining them apart for a certain time, and suffering 

 them to return by their attractive force to their 

 former union. The energy developed in the ap- 

 proach of the magnets towards each other is exactly 

 equal to the force expended in their separation." In 

 the case of the living body, the force thus developed 



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