CHAPTER IV 



THE CORRELATION OF VITAL PHENOMENA 



The object in view — Eesults outcome in part of researches 

 originally started as to the phenomena of phosphorescence — 

 Object to arrive at dynamical explanations — Luminosity 

 result of metabolic actions, of a building up and breaking 

 down of molecules — Fluorescence and phosphorescence — 

 Luminosity of gases when an electric discharge passes 

 through them — Theory of large chains of molecules — 

 Fluorescence and absorption — Inferences to be drawn from 

 these — Luminous and non-luminous states of matter two 

 different states — Catalytic actions — Enzymes and nuclei — 

 Stable and unstable groups of molecules — Atoms may be 

 elementary cells — Biogenesis carried to its logical extreme — 

 Huxley's scientific faith — Views of Johannes Miiller — The 

 unity and plurality in Nature everywhere combined, and 

 constitute its continuity. 



In dwelling upon so vast and so complicated a 

 group of phenomena as that with which we have to 

 deal, the object which should be kept in view is not 

 so much that of dealing with the matter in an 

 exhaustive fashion, which, it must be feared, would 

 be as hopeless as it would be bewildering, but 

 rather to present in outline, as far as possible, the 

 results as well as the methods of some of the more 

 or less recent investigations calculated to throw light 



