6

Anaimal Life

that the blood is the great source of nutrition, &
that every part, muscle, bone et&c is formed of it, it
seems not irrational to conclude that it possesses
vitality. Life we know cannot arise out of, nor
depend on mere organization. This of itself is nothing.
Wherever there is the power of preservation, the
principle or power of life may exist. An egg must
have the power of self preservation and therefore life, as
is proved by its resisting putrefaction and preserving
its temperature. You will examine the experiments
of Mr. Hunter on eggs. He found that a fresh egg does
not freeze so soon by 7½ minutes as an egg which had
been layed for some time. A fresh egg in a freezing
mixture remained fluid at 29°, a dead egg was frozen
at 32°. The same experiments were made on frogs, eels,
snails, et&c. All these things seem conclusive of the truth of
which we have said that life may exist independent
of its phenomena. The blood when exposed to similar
experiments showed the same results. This proves that