THE MATERIAL VIEW OF LIFE. 535 



trine that there is no fundamental difference whether of proper- 

 ties or of governing laws between the animate and the inaminate. 

 The chemist turns starch into sugar in the laboratory ; the intes- 

 tines do the same. 



We find at the beginning of this century a theory supported 

 by Lavoisier which declared that, to form an organic compound, 

 life was necessary. The organic compounds had properties essen- 

 tially different from the inorganic or mineral, and were formed 

 under different influences — under the influence of a " vital force." 



The greatest blow to this theory was the discovery by Wohler, 

 in 1828, that he could make urea in the laboratory. Here, then, 

 was a characteristic animal substance, which was actually formed 

 in the laboratory without the intervention of any "vital force" 

 whatever. Since Wohler's discovery an overwhelming number of 

 similar bodies have been formed in like manner. Sugar may be 

 made from its elements — carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. There 

 is little doubt that at some future time the method of making all 

 the materials of any organization will be known to the chemist. 



It has been said that organic materials are more easily decom- 

 posable than inorganic ; but albumen, if dried, will keep for years, 

 whereas silver iodide on the sensitive photographic plate is 

 changed by light in the hundred-thousandth part of a second. 



Hence, it is not difference in materials that can distinguish the 

 organized from the unorganized. Indeed, every organization con- 

 sists in major part of water, which is inorganic, and every organi- 

 zation must contain salts. In both organic and inorganic we find 

 crystals ; white of egg has already been crystallized. In fact, there 

 is no boundary to be drawn. Over the organic and inorganic rule 

 the same natural laws. The distinction is merely conventional. 



The difference between the organized and the unorganized 

 does not lie in the materials represented, only in the arrangement 

 of the materials. The element of life is the minute cell. All life 

 in the organization is dependent upon the activity of the cells. 

 I have said that the conditions in the organized were different 

 from those in the unorganized. The cell furnishes the conditions 

 for life. Now, the arrangement of the materials in the cell is dif- 

 ferent from that in unorganized matter. In the piece of copper or 

 crystal of sugar the smallest particles are everywhere the same. 

 In the living organized cell the smallest particles are everywhere 

 different. Such arrangement of materials that the conditions for 

 life are present is the so-called protoplasm. 



The yeast cell is a microscopic sausage-shaped organization 

 which, under proper conditions, changes sugar into alcohol and 

 carbonic acid. This is a characteristic function. In the same 

 manner the cells in the body have their characteristic functions 

 in decomposing the materials furnished by the blood. 



