CHAPTER XXI 



SCIENCE AND DEATH 



We do not understand life, neither can we under- 

 stand death ; but it seems certain that, regarding 

 matter from a mechanical standpoint, we cannot 

 draw such a hard and fast line as for some 

 centuries we were wont to draw. As we have 

 shown in previous chapters, to talk of dead, inert, 

 passive matter is nonsense. Dead matter so-called 

 is an enormous reservoir of energy. 



We can find no better definition of life, as con- 

 trasted with death, — and we offer the definition most 

 diffidently, — than combinations of molecules which 

 are constantly breaking down and as constantly 

 being renewed, which, despite such flux, retain 

 constantly the same general chemical composition, 

 and which always show molar as well as molecular 

 motion, resulting in locomotion and reproduction. 

 What we call death is a change in the combination, 

 resulting in abolition of molar movement and de- 

 composition of the molecular aggregate. In the 



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