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Article LIFE AND ITS MACHINERY. Page 1 of 6 →
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Life And Its Machinery.
LIFE AND ITS MACHINEBY ..
JSTo . II .
We have shown that living beings are distinguished from minerals by several palpable points of difference ; and , when these distinctions are borne in mind , it seems very easy to determine whether any object which we may chance to examine be a mineral , or a creature endowed with organization and life ; and so it is , provided the object can be easily examined . No one would mistake an elephant for a castle , or a whale for a rock . But the microscope has
revealed the existence of animal and vegetable forms so exceedingly minute , that it is sometimes difficult to ascertain whether they are endowed with life , or whether they are merely the products of chemical action . And this difficulty is often increased by the peculiar nature of the vital actions observable in minute vegetable forms , inasmuch as these actions or changes appear to partake , in the first instance , of the nature of chemical changes peculiar
to inorganized matter . Take , for instance , the article familiarly known by the name of yeast . Yeast is a product of fermentation : fermentation is a chemical action . Yet yeast is found invariably to consist in part of the cells and sporules of a minute vegetable , called the yeast fungus . Whence did this fungus derive its vitality , —whence and how was the seed produced or conveyed to the
yeast ? Malt ceases to have life long before it is exposed to the operations of the brewer ; when its soluble particles are placed in solution in the vat they begin to ferment . This fermentation produces a vegetable , not barley , or any thing like it , but a microscopic fungus . Schleiden is of opinion that the yeast cells originate without the influence of a living plant . If it be so , we have here a
startling phenomenon , —a being occupying a natural link between the living and the dead , brought into individual existence by an action neither chemical or vital , but between both : thus realizing the mystery of the fabled phoenix , burnt to ashes and reduced to the condition of inorganized matter : vet from these ashes a living : condition of inorganized matter ; yet from these ashes a living
phoenix springs . Whatever be the origin of the remarkable vegetative existence thus formed in yeast , it is very clear , that having been once evolved , it rapidly germinates and reproduces itself , like other vegetables ; which circumstance rather tends to throw doubts on the ambiguity of its original generation . This is not the only instance in which it is difficult to distinguish the vital from the non-vital .
Diseases called zymotic consist of molecular changes in the fluids of the body , much resembling the fermentation which produces the yeast fungus : and pathologists of repute have ventured an opinion that all epidemics arise from germs , which are , in some way or other , communicable from person to person , and which find , in the Ton . i . 4 D
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Life And Its Machinery.
LIFE AND ITS MACHINEBY ..
JSTo . II .
We have shown that living beings are distinguished from minerals by several palpable points of difference ; and , when these distinctions are borne in mind , it seems very easy to determine whether any object which we may chance to examine be a mineral , or a creature endowed with organization and life ; and so it is , provided the object can be easily examined . No one would mistake an elephant for a castle , or a whale for a rock . But the microscope has
revealed the existence of animal and vegetable forms so exceedingly minute , that it is sometimes difficult to ascertain whether they are endowed with life , or whether they are merely the products of chemical action . And this difficulty is often increased by the peculiar nature of the vital actions observable in minute vegetable forms , inasmuch as these actions or changes appear to partake , in the first instance , of the nature of chemical changes peculiar
to inorganized matter . Take , for instance , the article familiarly known by the name of yeast . Yeast is a product of fermentation : fermentation is a chemical action . Yet yeast is found invariably to consist in part of the cells and sporules of a minute vegetable , called the yeast fungus . Whence did this fungus derive its vitality , —whence and how was the seed produced or conveyed to the
yeast ? Malt ceases to have life long before it is exposed to the operations of the brewer ; when its soluble particles are placed in solution in the vat they begin to ferment . This fermentation produces a vegetable , not barley , or any thing like it , but a microscopic fungus . Schleiden is of opinion that the yeast cells originate without the influence of a living plant . If it be so , we have here a
startling phenomenon , —a being occupying a natural link between the living and the dead , brought into individual existence by an action neither chemical or vital , but between both : thus realizing the mystery of the fabled phoenix , burnt to ashes and reduced to the condition of inorganized matter : vet from these ashes a living : condition of inorganized matter ; yet from these ashes a living
phoenix springs . Whatever be the origin of the remarkable vegetative existence thus formed in yeast , it is very clear , that having been once evolved , it rapidly germinates and reproduces itself , like other vegetables ; which circumstance rather tends to throw doubts on the ambiguity of its original generation . This is not the only instance in which it is difficult to distinguish the vital from the non-vital .
Diseases called zymotic consist of molecular changes in the fluids of the body , much resembling the fermentation which produces the yeast fungus : and pathologists of repute have ventured an opinion that all epidemics arise from germs , which are , in some way or other , communicable from person to person , and which find , in the Ton . i . 4 D