The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-10-23
What Is Life?

THIS question was. raised by the
scientists assembled at Boston last week,
and it must be confessed that little was
done toward answering it. Life"
says the retiring President of the
American Association for the Advance.
ment of Science, represents simply
the sum of the phenomena exhibited >by
a living being.' Life is all that can.
not be explained by chemistry and
physics" he says in the next sentence;
but if what chemistry and physics can
explain is not life, then the first defini.
ton is not true. Many fthe phenomena
of a living being are explainable by
these sciences; so that really the
residuum of the sum of the phenomena
of living beings, which residuum can.
not be scientifically explained, is life.
Ii materialistic science cannot ex-
plain the phenomena of life is it
not absurd that students of such
science should be continually defining
what life is, and what it is not? Saws
ex-President Barker of the American
Association for the Advancement Of
Science, Life is now universally re-
garded as a phenomenon of matter,
and hence as having no separate exist
ence." What splendid logic! Has
piece of flint or broken pottery, Or
clod of clay, life? If not, why did not
this philosopher say that life is phe.
nomenon of ''some'' matter? Does it
logically follow that because life is a
phenomenon intimately related to some
matter, that it is therefore non-exist-
ent except in such relation? Not at
all. ''Mud is now universally regarded
as a phenomenon of swamps, and hence
as having no separate existence" is
proposition identical except as to one
term, and just as logical as that of ex.
President Barker; that is, it is not in the
least logical, but mere absurdity.
Although, as the wise ex-President
says, we cannot tell what life is, we can
say and prove that there is a great
probability that there is such a thing
as life disconnected with matter, and
that its relations to matter are rather
exceptional than universal. A seed
loses its life in process of time, and will
no longer terminate. What has gone!
Certainly not the germ, the albumen,
the oil, nor any physical atom, part or
particle of weight; yet the seed is dead.
On the contrary, seed that has life,
when planted, has the ability to assim-
ilate to itself and transform dead mat.
ter into living organism. Barn-yard
manure becomes beans, beets, corn,
potatoes, capsicums, the cerulean
corolla of the morning-glory, the
fragrance of the mignonette or of the
dianthus. Without the seed, barn
yard manure was never known to change
into garden vegetables. The true
and scientific fact is simply that life
must exist before it can be exhibited in
connection with matter. Dead matter
is never transformed into living matter
except through tie agency of matter
which already contains life. The most
crucial experiments of Bastian, and
which he claimed showed that life OF
low grades was producible spontaneous.
ly, have all beeh shown by Tyndall and
others to be fallacious. Living bodies
universally have their origin in living
bodies, and it is an unvarying condition
that bodies should be living in order to
give life to dead matter. When life has
gone out of an organism, it has no long.
er power to change the form of dead
matter, but of itself begins straightway
to dissolve into the elements which
chemistry and physics alone may ex-
PLAINLY. Y. Christian AdeocGte.