Gold-Smith. — -Description of Mayor Island. 417 



matter of the soil and the roots of the higher plants. I throw this out 

 merely as a suggestion, but I think the question well worthy of further 

 investigation, particularly as I find that these Bacteria are most abundant 

 in clay, the inorganic constituents of which can hardly afford nourishment 

 to the roots which so abundantly penetrate it. 



The transmutation of vital force would then seem to go in a perpetual 

 circle — the higher organisms deriving theirs originally from their parent 

 forms, and then constantly recruiting it, as it is dissipated or converted into 

 other forces, from the lower forms, and then giving it back to these in the 

 process of transformation, decay, or death. 



I believe that the numerous discoveries of Bacteria made of late years in 

 morbid products of the human body, in the bodies of the higher vertebrates 

 are merely expressions of this fact ; that the Bacteria are simply the results 

 of the morbid processes, and not their causes. All diseased or unhealthy 

 tissues are in a state of incipient death — their mode of nutrition, their pro- 

 cess of growth and development not being the normal ones, they are more 

 likely to become the nursery grounds of Bacteria than the healthy tissues 

 are, which have an inherent power of resisting the presence of these lower 

 forms of life ; but to enter fully into this subject would lead me too far 

 from the main question of this paper. 



To conclude then, I maintain that, — 



1st. A. living being is a form of protoplasm which possesses within itself the 

 power of motion not derived ab extra, of self -nutrition, and of reproduction. 



2nd. That the force or combination of forces which gives to protoplasms 

 these qualities and powers is called life. 



3rd. That, if life results from a combination of forces, these must be 

 endowed with intelligence, and act towards a common end. 



4th. That the ordinary forces of nature — such as light, heat, chemical 

 affinity, gravity, motion, and the others — are not thus endowed. 



5th. That therefore the force which we call for convenience the vital 

 force is a distinct and special force. 



Art. LIII. — Description of Mayor Island. 



By E. C. Gold-Smith, District Surveyor, Tauranga. 



[Read before the Auckland Institute, Uth August, 1884.] 



Mayor Island, or Tuhua, is situated in the Bay of Plenty, twenty-three 



miles north of Tauranga Harbour and about sixteen miles from the nearest 



part of the coast of the North Island. Its name was given to it by Captain 



Cook, who discovered it on the 3rd November, 1769, when on his first 



voyage to New Zealand. 



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