153 
manner : * — “ The phenomena presented by inorganic matter, 
or by organisms deprived of life, afford ns no ground upon 
which to base the theory that life and mind can be ‘evolved' — 
according to the phraseology of the day — from spontaneous 
self-action of either. It has been well remarked that in plants 
the act of living is carried on by ‘the life force'’ causing 
the simpler chemical elements to be built up, or united into 
more complex ones ; while in animals the ‘ life force 9 causing 
chemical change produces a change which is the reverse of 
what takes place in the plant ; namely, a fulling apart of 
complex chemical substances, such, for example, as are con- 
tained in food, and reducing them to simpler forms. The life- 
processes of the plant are chiefly concerned in building up 
inorganic food; those of the animal in pulling to pieces 
organic food; yet plant and animal, in the performance of the 
functions special to each, produce anew very various chemical 
organic compounds, some of which the chemist can, but the 
majority of which he cannot, imitate. This principle of life, or 
occult power by which all organisms live, is not a mere com- 
bined working of the chemico-physical forces ; it is something 
above physics and chemistry, though using and controlling 
them to its needs. Nor does the mere name applied at any 
particular date to this mysterious and inscrutable power afford 
us aid to the comprehension of its actual and demonstrable 
nature. The discoveries of science render manifest more and 
more of the wonderful workings of life ; each new discovery 
but furnishes a starting-point whence further investigations are 
to proceed ; but as to the thing itself — the aim and object of 
inquiry — farther and farther does it elude the^ search, farther 
and farther vanish into the inscrutable, so long as we bring to 
bear upon it only the means afforded by science pure and 
simple. And if these remarks are applicable in regard to 
plants, how much more manifest is their importance when 
referred to animals ; how infinitely greater when transferred 
to man." 
12. A further phase of our subject now in hand reaches us 
from Germany. It is this : — “ Living protoplasm owes its 
property of life to the presence of aldehyde groups, which are 
characterised by intensely active atomic movement." Regard- 
ing death, we are told that “when death takes place, it is 
coeval with, and caused by, a transformation of these aldehyde 
groups into amyl groups, with diminished molecular motion, 
thus leading to cessation of action." f 
* Science a Stronghold of Belief. 
t Medical Press and Circular , August 16, 1882, p. 142, 
