Living elements or cells cannot subsist indefinitely without increasing and multiplying. The time must come when the cell divides, either directly or indirectly; and then, instead of one cell, there are two. This is the method of generation for the anatomical element. In a complex individual it is a more or less restricted part of the organism, usually a simple sexual cell, that takes on the formation of the new being, and assures the perpetuity of the protoplasm, and therefore of the species.
Property of Growth. Its Supposed Restriction to Living Beings.—At first it would appear that nothing like this occurs in inanimate nature. The physical machine, if we furnish it matter and energy, could go on working indefinitely, without being compelled to increase and reproduce. Here, then, there is an entirely new condition peculiar to the organized being, a property well adapted, it would seem—and this time without any possible doubt—for separating living matter from brute matter. It is not so.
It would not be impossible to imagine a system of chemical bodies organized like the animal or vegetable economy, so that a destruction would be compensated for by a growth. The only thing impossible is to suppose, with M. le Dantec, a destruction that would at the same time be an analysis. And an additional perplexity occurs when he supposes that in the successive acts exchanges of material may occur.
There is no necessity for making this impossible chemistry a characteristic of the living being. The chemistry of the living being is general chemistry. Lavoisier and Berthelot enforced this view. We should not lose sight of the teachings of the masters.
