The relation of the vegetable and animal to the inorganic kingdom : a lecture delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain / by William S. Savory.

  • Savory, William Scovell, 1826-1895.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The relation of the vegetable and animal to the inorganic kingdom : a lecture delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain / by William S. Savory. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    proportion of water and the presence of nitrogen, exert upon the stability of a compound, we have no difficulty in accounting for the easy and rapid decomposition of most organic substances. But he it remembered that in both organic and inorganic bodies are seen all degrees of this tendency to decomposition, which is the result of their com- position, and of the conditions to which they are exposed. By withholding or supplying these con- ditions it may be, in either case, prevented or set on foot. Thus far the relation of the organic to the in- organic kingdom has been considered without reference to life. The previous considerations apply to organized bodies under every condition Their anatomy and chemistry belong to them whether dead or living. Hitherto no abrupt line of demarcation has been discovered. Life, after all, constitutes the grand distinction. The difference appears to be infinitely greater between living and dead organic matter than between dead organic and inorganic substances. And in order to appreciate this distinction, there is no need to exhibit one’s ignorance in any at- tempt to define life, or to describe it. We are indeed baffled in the study of life, as we are by those subtler traits of structure with which vital phenomena are associated, yet we may recognize and distinguish it by its effects. I would venture, then, to speak of life as being c 2
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