CHAP. IV. DUBING 8ECEEXI0N. 55 



connected with secretion to be at least something 

 more than a mere physical transudation; and as 

 reasons exist for shewing that osmotic phenomena 

 are polar in their nature, why may we not also 

 consider the action connected with secretion, and 

 where we can obtain such direct evidence of polar 

 action as manifested by the galvanometer, to be 

 polar in its nature ? 



Eespecting the chemical character of osmose, and 

 its bearings upon physiology. Professor Gbaham 

 a,dds : " It may appear to some that the chemical 

 character which has been assigned to osmose takes 

 away from the physiological interest of the subject, in 

 so far as the decomposition of the membrane may 

 appear to be incompatible with vital conditions, and 

 osmotic movement confined therefore to dead matter. 

 But such apprehensions are, it is believed, ground- 

 less, or at all events premature. All parts of living 

 structures axe allowed to be in a state of incessant 

 change — of decomposition and renewal. The de- 

 composition occurring in a living membrane, while 

 effecting osmotic propulsion, may possibly be of a 

 reparable kind. In other respects, chemical osmose 

 appears to be an agency particularly well adapted to 

 take part in the animal economy." 



