The Mechanism of Life

by the addition of material from without--the juxtaposition of bricks, as it were--while the latter grew by intussusception, an introduction of fresh material into the substance of the organism. A crystal, moreover, was homogeneous, while the tissues of a living being were differentiated--such differentiation constituting the organization. At the present time, however, we recognize the existence of a great variety of purely physical productions, the so-called "osmotic growths," which increase by a process of intussusception, and develop therefrom a marvellous complexity of organization and of form. Hence growth and organization cannot be considered as the essential characteristics of life.

Since, then, we are totally unable to define the exact boundary which separates life from the physical phenomena of nature, we may fairly conclude that no such separation exists. This is in conformity with the "law of continuity,"--the principle which asserts that all the phenomena of nature are continuous in time an