1 882. ] Organic Physics, 471 



trary it takes it apart, piece by piece, as men take down the tim- 

 bers of a house. Protoplasm has evidently a definite chemical 

 structure, and if it can be taken down piecemeal it can be built up 

 piecemeal. If susceptible to chemical analysis it must be suscep- 

 tible to chemical synthesis. 



Moreover, animal bodies have nothing to do with the produc- 

 tion of protoplasm. It is produced in plants alone. Animals 

 simply add new protoplasm derived from plants to their existing 

 protoplasmic tissues. Thus if vitality is confined in its action to 

 the formation of protoplasm, then vitality exists in plants alone, 

 and animals are destitute of it. Or if animals possess vital force 

 its action is confined to assimilation, the causing of one fragment 

 of protoplasm to cohere to another. 



Evidently chemistry has driven vitality into a very close cor- 

 ner, and left it a very weak leg to stand upon. And if we give 

 vitality its correct name this leg grows weaker still. It is not 

 chemical or physical energy. It is none of the forces at work in 

 inorganic nature. Therefore it is something supernatural. Its 

 adherents do not claim this. They do not boldly declare what 

 they necessarily imply, that the formation and assimilation of 

 protoplasm are miraculous processes, and that organic existence 

 is only sustained by a continual miracle. But their premises ad- 

 mit of no other conclusion. Yet the duty of miracle in this di- 



the whole field, wit) 



1 the e> 



tceptio 



n of a 



-1VM 



e obscu. 



-ecor 





which alone the mii 



acle of 





■ trernb 



iir-gl 



y holds 



out. 





There is a crucial 



test to 



which 



this fi 



nalq 



iiiestion 



may 1 



•c P ut 



There is one fixed 



comiiti 



on un 



der wh 



ich i 



done th 



e acti' 



rity of 



Protoplasm can disp 



)lay itse 



if. 0: 



v-vgen 





always 



be pi 



■esent. 



There is no life wit 



hout o> 



tygen. 



Wh« 



n thi 



s eleme: 



nt is abnor- 



™ally abundant life 



procee. 





1 abnoi 



mal 



rapidity 



. W 



hen it 



•s deficient in quan 





becon 



les slu 





1. Whe 



n it 1 



s pre- 



v ented from enterin 



g the c 



u-ganis 



m life 



a;w 



:s to ex 



ist. ] 





vitality is incapable 



of displ 



aying 



itself e 



Keep 



t in the 



prese 



nee of 



°xygen, and the problem b. 



■conic- 



5 the fi 



)llo\\ 



ing : so 



much 



i oxy- 



gen so much vitality 



-. The* 





measui 



ed iv 



1 terms c 



»fthe 



other. 



No one can imagi 



ne that 



the m< 



re pre* 



:ClKV 



of oxyj 



;en sc 



its the 



wheels of vitality in 



motion. 



0x5 



rgen ; - 



too 1 



vigorous 



\ ch( 



:mical 



a gent to rest at east 



i in contact w 



ith the 



: wea 



kly coh< 



sring 



mole- 



cul es of protoplasm. 



It can 



mot bi 



it seize 



upoi 



1 some of thei 



rcon- 



