OF THE PHYSICAL ELEMENTS OF MAN

The human body is an organised compound substance, but its known elements belong to the inorganic kingdom. All its parts are formed from the blood, and the blood consists of two ingredients—fibrine and serum. Fibrine is identical in its composition with muscular fibre, and serum with white of egg. These two substances contain ten chemical elements: namely, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, phosphorous, sulphur, chlorine, potash, soda, and lime. Iron and certain fatty substances also are found in the blood.

At present, the primitive organic form is considered to be a cell. The tissues which enter into the structure of complex organs are regarded only as the means for supplying the conditions requisite for the vital operations of the cells. Different cells have different properties; one set of cells, for example, separates certain elements from the blood and forms bones, another set forms nerves. The cause of the formation of the cell, and of different cells possessing different properties, is unknown. Many physiologists name it the vital force, and regard it as the source of growth and reproduction. Several of the conditions under which cells develope themselves into complex organs are known; but it is unascertained whether their evolutions are the result merely of properties possessed by matter in its inorganic form, or of matter and some new force added to it.