IS LIFE UNIVERSAL? 133 



They are opposites : the one is the formation of the 

 body, the other depends on its destruction. And for 

 either to be understood, it is necessary that the dis- 

 tinction between them should be clearly apprehended. 

 But when we take a larger view, the relation of these 

 two processes assumes quite a different aspect. The 

 appearance of opposition is merged in a wider unity. 

 The nutrition and the function of a living body are 

 rather a twofold presentation of one process, than two 

 different processes. That which, seen on one side, is 

 nutrition, seen on the other is function. Let us take, 

 first, the case in which a decomposition within the 

 body, itself produces an increased nutrition. Here, 

 it is evident, the increased vitality is the equivalent 

 of a force that, if directed through the muscles, might 

 have been productive of motion. It is, in fact, an 

 internal function, so to speak. The force set free by 

 decomposition in the body, instead of operating ex- 

 ternally, operates within it Nutrition, though it is 

 the basis and provision for the external functional 

 activity, may itself be classed as a function, and may 

 take rank in the same list with the other results of 

 internal decomposition motion, animal heat, &c. 



