LIVING PRINCIPLE. 119 



have continued its growth, for many days or hours. Its death is gene- 

 rally in the summer, when it is necessary to have an increase of life ; 

 but the roots being unable to procure it, it dies. It has just life enough 

 to keep it longer alive in the winter state. This is similar to lizards 

 which have been in the cold and are very weak. A lizard which would 

 have been capable of living a month in such a weak state, and would 

 show but little alteration in the cold, would die in an hour if brought 

 into a warm room. It would seem as if a certain quantity of Simple 

 Life was necessary to support the acquired life, or that life which de- 

 pends upon particular circumstances. - Some trees have much less of 

 this life than others ; for, in them, they are not able to shoot forth the 

 first year. 



The more complicated a machine is, the more nice its operations are, 

 and, of course, the greater dependence each part has upon the other ; 

 and, therefore, there is a more intimate connexion through the whole. 

 This holds good in society. It also holds good in the animal economy. 

 The most perfect animals cannot be hurt in part without the whole 

 suffering, while the more imperfect may be considerably hurt without 

 the other parts suffering much. Thus we find that a man cannot lose 

 a leg without the whole frame sympathizing with the injured parts, as 

 if conscious of a loss ; while a frog appears to be but little hurt. A 

 snail, lobster, lizard, &c, can lose many parts which will be restored 

 again. A polypus is still less hurt by amputation ; for a new animal 

 arises out of the wound or cut. So far we find a gradation from the 

 animal to the vegetable. 



Bodies which have a living principle can be acted upon by mechanical 

 or chemical principles ; but not by such a process as the fermentative, 

 that is, they have not fermentative powers in themselves. 



The act of freezing, simply, does not kill either vegetable or animal ; 

 it is the quantity of cold that kills. A vegetable that cannot bear the 

 cold of 50° dies, although it is not frozen ; a vegetable that cannot bear 

 the cold of 30° or of 20° dies, although it may not be frozen before it 

 dies, but will be frozen after ; which will give the idea of its having 

 been killed by the frost ; but a vegetable that can live in a cold of 10°, 

 may freeze at a cold of 15°, but will not die 1 . 



Degrees of Excitements and Sedatives. 



We have natural actions; then stimulus, or increased excitement, 

 to perform the same action ; and then irritation, which is to perform 



1 [This assertion needs experimental proof, i. e. of the actual change of the 

 tissues consequent on being frozen and thereby showing the fact.] 



