THE WONDERS OF LIFE 



der Abstammungslehre (1884). Wilhelm Ostwald has 

 recently done the same, from the monistic point of view 

 of his system of energy, in his Naturphilosophie, espe- 

 cially in the sixteenth chapter. Without being acquaint- 

 ed with my earlier work, he has impartially compared 

 the physico-chemical processes in the organic and inor- 

 ganic worlds, partly adducing the same illustrations 

 from the instructive field of crystallization. He came 

 to the same monistic conclusions that I reached thirty- 

 six years ago. As most biologists continue to ignore 

 them, and as, especially, modern vitalism thrusts these 

 inconvenient facts out of sight, I will give a brief sum- 

 mary once more of the chief points as regards the matter, 

 form, and forces of bodies. 



Chemical analysis shows that there are no elements 

 present in organisms that are not found in inorganic 

 bodies. The number of elements that cannot be further 

 analyzed is now put at seventy-eight; but of these only 

 the five organogenetic elements already mentioned which 

 combine to form plasm — carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, 

 nitrogen, and sulphur — are found invariably in living 

 things. With these are generally (but not always) 

 associated five other elements — phosphor, potassium, 

 calcium, magnesium, and iron. Other elements may also 

 be found in organisms ; but there is not a single biological 

 element that is not also found in the inorganic world. 

 Hence the distinctive features which separate the one 

 from the other can be sought only in some special form 

 of combination of the elements. And it is carbon es- 

 pecially, the chief organic element, that by its peculiar 

 affinity enters into the most diverse and complicated 

 combinations with other elements, and produces the 

 most important of all substances, the albuminoids, at 

 the head of which is the living plasm {cf. chapter vi.). 



An indispensable condition of the circulation of matter 

 (metabolism) which we call life is the physical process of 



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