MANIFESTATIONS OF LIFE INEXPLICABLE BY GENERAL LAWS &c. 119 
produced from other living bodies of the same 
species as themselves, and that all their qua- 
lities, form, peculiarities of weight, of adhe- 
sion and cohesion, the form and composition 
oftheir parts, in short the mode ofshowing 
their own action, are determined by the orga- 
nic powers of the bodies which originate them. 
We know of no living body generated by the 
action of purely physical or chemic^ forcp. 
All the qualities, therefore, of organic bodies 
should be looked upon as the effects of life. 
Even those phenomena seen in them, which 
they exhibit in common with organic bodies, 
undergo modifications of their specific action, 
and should be considered as subordinate to 
the organic powers. 
L. The weight of different living bodies 
depends on their life, and varies according to 
the periods of age, the state of nutrive func- 
tions, and divers influences, external as well 
as internal, which modify the manifestations 
of activity of these functions, 'l'he_ specific 
gravity of all their solids and liquids is also 
subject to continual changes during the course 
of their existence. The liquids contained in 
the different spaces, cavities, or vessels of the 
plants and animals, are not distributed accord- 
ing to the law of gravitation alone*, they are 
frequently moved against their gravity, and 
their manner of movement and of distribution 
is dependent on their manifestation oflife. 
LI. The degree of cohesion, of adhesion, 
and consistence of organic bodies, of all their 
liquid and solid parts, varies extremely accord- 
ing to the duration of their existence and 
manifestations of activity. Plants and ani- 
mals have but little consistence and cohesion 
in the first period of their existence. 'J’hese 
properties become more pronounced in them 
in proportion as they are developed, and for 
the most part they attain their maximum in 
advanced age. Various influences, which 
modify their manifestations of life, as heat, 
light, the atmosphere, water, and food, pro- 
duce changes in their state of cohesion. This 
changes even in consequence of their internal 
action, as is particularly seen in the contrac- 
tion of the muscles. The same is the case 
with the chemical affinities met with in living 
bodies. The composition of these bodies, as 
well in their entire as in their different parts, 
together with all the changes which take place 
during the existence of organic bodies, should 
be considered as the effects oflife.* 
Neither does heat spread over living bodies 
in the same manner, nor after the same laws, 
as in bodies not endued with life. The 
* Berzelius also (Lelirbucli der Chemie, v. 3, 
part 1st, p. 136) recognises tliis, wheu he says, 
“ The elements seem to obey, in living bodies, 
other laws than those in dead bodies, or bodies 
not endued with life. The cause of this differ- 
ence has hitherto been withheld from our 
enquiries, and we attribute it to a power of a 
peculiar nature, belonging only to living bodies 
—the, vital power. This something is plared 
altogether beyond inorganic elements ; it is 
not one of their original qualities, as gravity, 
impenetrability, electric polarity, &c.; hut 
we can neither conceive what it is, nor how it 
is generated or finishes.-' 
greater number of animals maintain the tem- 
perature peculiar to them, although that of 
the surrounding media be different. 
LI I. Even when the life of organic bodies 
is extinct, we should consider the qualities 
which they possess, from the time of death to 
the complete resolution of organization, as 
results oithe organic powers which have been 
active in them. Besides the powers of life, 
Bichat* admits, in organic bodies., par- 
ticular qualities, amongst which he _ classed 
extensibility, contractility, and elasticity of 
the tissues, which he regarded as inherent in 
their texture and the arrangement of the mole- 
cules of which they are composed. He thinks 
them independent of life, because they remain 
after death, and are only annihilated after 
the establishment of putrefaction and destruc- 
tion of the organs. He adds, that life cer- 
tainly augments their energy, but thatitisnot 
the cause of it. These properties are also the 
eff'ecfs of forces which life has put into action, 
for the tissues which possess them have been 
produced during life and by life. The qua- 
lities which still remain inherent in them after 
death proceed from their composition and 
texture, and these are produced by the mani- 
festations of life. So soon as chemical affini- 
ties take the upper hand in dead bodies, during 
fermentation and putrefaction, these proper- 
ties of the tissues also disappear and are de» 
stroyed as the last remaining effects oflife. 
LIII. Hence it follows that the qualities 
of organic bodies, as well those observed in life 
as those remaining even alter death, should 
be considered as the effects and results of spe- 
cial powers that are exercised in these alone. 
All the phenomena of these bodies, even those 
of general physical forces, are produced or 
modified by life and its powers. Reil, there- 
fore, 'b was right when he said that, in a 
living organ, nothing is dead, not even elasti- 
city, and that all therein is modified by what 
w*e call life. 
The manifestations of life, such as we 
recognize them, are inexplicable by the general 
laws of physics. J Neither the power of 
* On Life and Death, p. 43. General Ana- 
tomy, V. i, pai't 1, p. 36. 
+ Archiv. fiir die Physiologie, v. vii, p. 438. 
% Buffon (Histoire Nat., v. ii, p. 60) says, 
“ J’avoue que je pense bien differemment de 
ces philosophes ; il me semble qu’en n’admet- 
tent qu’un certain nombre des principes 
mechaniques, il n’ont pas senti combien ils 
retrecissoient la philosophie, et ils n’ont pas 
vu, que pour un phenomene qu’on pourraity 
rappeler, il y eu avoit mille qui en etoient 
independens. L’idee de ramener Fexplication 
de tous les phenomenesa des principes mecba- 
niques, est assurement grande et helle: ce pas 
est le plus hardi qu’on putfaire en philosophie, 
et c’est Descartes qui I’a fait; mais cette idee 
n’est qu’uu projet. Le defaut de la philosophic 
d’ Aristote etoitd’employercomme causes tous- 
les effets particuliers ; celui de celle de Des- 
cartes est de ne vouloir employer comme 
causes, qu’un petit nombre d’effets generaux, 
en donnant I’exclusion a tout le reste. Il me 
semble que la philosophie sans defaut seroit 
celle ou I’on n’employeroit pour causes que 
des effets generaux, mais ou I’on cher^ heroit 
en meme temps a en augroenter le nomi re, 
en ta, hant de generaliser les effets parti',u- 
liers.” 
