126 GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY 



to its details, to the metabolism of organisms ; nevertheless, nitric 

 acid is an inorganic compound, 



Such phenomena are relatively rare and occur in free nature, 

 where their conditions are not artificially established by human 

 agency, only very seldom. Nevertheless, they do not permit 

 the presence of a metabolism to be maintained as an absolute 

 difference between living organisms and inorganic bodies. 



Thus the fact has been established that a fundamental con- 

 trast between living organisms and inorganic bodies does not 

 exist. In contradistinction to all inorganic nature, however, 

 organisms are characterised solely by the possession of certain 

 highly complex chemical compounds, especially proteids. 



B. LIVING AND LIFELESS ORGANISMS 



1. Life and Afpannt Death 



In India, where mystery and magic have always prevailed, the 

 belief seems to have existed for a long time, that many men, especi- 

 ally the so-called fakirs, whose existences are full of privation and 

 self-inflicted torture, and who are supposed to possess special holi- 

 ness, have the remarkable power of voluntarily putting a complete 

 stop to their lives for a time and later resuming them undis- 

 turbed and unchanged. A great number of such cases, in which 

 the fakirs have been buried in this condition of suspended animation 

 and after some time have been taken from their graves, have been 

 reported by travellers from India. James Braid ('50), the well- 

 known discoverer of hypnotism, has collected some of the most 

 authentic cases, and supported them by the testimony of witnesses. 

 One of these cases, which may serve as a type, is the following : 



At the palace of Runjeet Singh, in a square building which had 

 in the middle a closed room, a fakir, who had voluntarily put him- 

 self into a lifeless condition, had been sewed up in a sack and 

 walled in, the single door of the room having been sealed with the 

 private seal of Runjeet Singh. (To judge from the account, 

 the air, as in all such cases, was not absolutely excluded.) 

 In order to exclude all fraud, Runjeet Singh, who was not himself 

 a believer in the wonderful power of the fakirs, had established a 

 cordon of his own body-guard around the building ; in front of 

 the latter, four sentries were stationed, who were relieved every two 

 hours and were continually watched. Under these conditions, 

 the fakir remained in his grave for six weeks. An Englishman, 

 who was present during the whole event as an eye-witness, reported 

 as follows concerning the disinterment, which took place at the end 

 of six weeks : When the building was opened in the presence of 



