CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 



INTKODUCTION— THE NATTJEE OF THE PROBLEM 



PAGE 



Plan of the book — Relationship of natural phenomena — The 

 continuity of vital processes^Historioal^ Aristotle, &c. — 

 Life as a series of molecular changes — The gradual scale 

 from the more complex to the simpler forms of molecular 

 aggregation' — Luminosity and metabolism — Phosphores- 

 cence and the simpler forms of life — Physical evidence of 

 simple metabolism in fluorescent and in radio-active bodies 

 — Pfliiger's theory — Experiments with radium and bouillon 

 — Borderland between mineral and vegetable kingdoms — 

 The dawn of life 1 



CHAPTER n 



THE CONTINUITY OF VITAL PROCESSES 



The properties of living matter — Life as conditioned by moisture 

 and temperature — Metabolism and the intussusception of 

 new matter or integration ; and waste or disintegration by 

 oxidation — The cyclic process — Chemical composition and 

 protoplasm — Life and organisation — Bastian on protoplasm 

 — Stimulation — Work — Herbert Spencer's definition of life 

 — Fechner's views — The continuity of the animate and in- 

 animate when clearly defined — Three stages that science has 

 to pass : empirical, classificatory, theoretical 25 



CHAPTER III 



CLASSIFICATION OF LIVING TYPES 



Reasons for extending the meaning of the word life to include a 

 wider class of phenomena — Sciences not divided into water- 

 tight compartments, but their division largely arbitrary — 

 Survival of living proteid — Definition of life — Life-stuff— 

 Manner in which it may have at first arisen— Continuity of 

 organic and inorganic matter — Biogenesis carried to its 



