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forces are at work in living plants and animals, as in the 
inorganic world.” It can hardly be denied that the same 
forces are at work in the living as in the inorganic world. The 
substance came from the inorganic. It is a portion of it, into 
which life was introduced ; an introduction that by no means 
did away with the inorganic powers. It was addition, not 
regeneration. 
As verging toward the production of the living from the 
dead, he observes, — “ We now find that the chemist, like 
the plant, is capable of producing from carbonic acid and 
water a whole host of organic bodies ; and we see no reason 
to question his ultimate ability to reproduce all animal and 
vegetable principles whatsoever.” Are these organic bodies, 
or any of them, necessary to abstract life ? It cannot be 
said they are ; for there are abundant living organisms with- 
out one or other of them. They are only concomitants of 
certain existences ; and predicate absolutely nothing as to the 
production or the continuance of life. 
He gives us the formulae of a great variety of organic 
bodies derived in the w T ay he states. Take one by way of 
example : formic acid is found in both the vegetable and 
animal kingdoms. What is the result of its manufacture in 
the laboratory ? It is one of the constituents of some living 
organisms ; and what does the chemist make of it ? No more 
than what an accidental combination in nature of the same 
ingredients in the same proportions could make — a dead 
body. Grant that not only many, but all, organic bodies — 
every one pertaining to animal and to vegetable — can be 
formed by the chemist out of the inorganic, it seems to me 
he is far as ever from life. There is every component part of 
life in the inorganic — but not life. We do not require che- 
mistry to tell us this. Dust we are. There can be no denial 
of our inorganic framework. But that is just the point — 
framework. What worked up the frame into life ? Between 
the dust we were, and the dust we return to, there lies a 
something which the chemist does not appear to grasp. He 
lays hold of the dust before it is animated; and he lays hold 
of the dust after animation has ceased : — the interval ? — the 
living interval ? For that, there is no formula : nevertheless, 
he. sees “ no reason to question the chemist's ultimate ability 
to reproduce all animal and vegetable principles whatsoever.” 
It has been foolishly put forward that organic bodies were the 
product of life only ; and as the chemist finds them where 
there is no life, he concludes, somewhat rashly, that the dis- 
covery of life itself is possible. The gross materials are there. 
He finds the block ; but where is the statue ? It must come 
