Plain Facts for Old and Young | Page 7

more than
furnish a name for a thing unknown, and the very existence of which
may fairly be doubted. In fact, any attempt to find a place for such a
force, to understand its origin, or harmonize its existence with that of
other well-known forces, is unsuccessful; and the theory of a peculiar
vital force, a presiding entity present in every living thing, vanishes

into thin air to give place to the more rational view of the most
advanced modern scientists, that vital force, so-called, is only a
manifestation of the ordinary forces of nature acting through a peculiar
arrangement of matter. In other words, life depends, not upon a peculiar
force, but upon a peculiar arrangement of matter, or organization. It is
simply a peculiar manifestation of the force possessed by atoms
exhibited through a peculiar arrangement of atoms and molecules. This
arrangement is what is known as organization; and bodies which
possess it are known as organized or living bodies. The term life may
be understood as referring to the phenomena which result from
organization.
That life results from organization, not organization from life, is more
consonant with the accepted and established facts of science than the
contrary view. We might adduce numerous facts and arguments in
support of this view of the nature of life, but will not do so here, as we
have considered the subject at some length elsewhere.[1]
[Footnote 1: See "Science and the Bible," pp. 36-46.]
Nutrition and reproduction are the two great functions of life, being
common not only to all animals, but to both animals and plants, to all
classes of living creatures. The object of the first, is the development
and maintenance of the individual existence; the second has for its end
the production of new individuals, or the preservation of the race.
Nutrition is a purely selfish process; reproduction is purely unselfish in
its object; though the human species--unlike the lower animals, which,
while less intelligent, are far more true to nature--too often pervert its
functions to the most grossly selfish ends.
The subject of nutrition is an important one, and well worthy the
attention of every person who values life. The general disregard of this
subject is undoubtedly the cause of a very large share of the ills to
which human flesh is heir; but our limited space forbids its
consideration here, and we shall confine our attention to reproduction.
REPRODUCTION.

As before remarked, reproduction is a function common to all animals
and to all plants. Every organized being has the power to reproduce
itself, or to produce, or aid in producing, other individuals like itself. It
is by means of this function that plants and animals increase or
multiply.
When we consider the great diversity of characters illustrated in animal
and vegetable life, and the infinite variety of conditions and
circumstances under which organized creatures exist, it is not
surprising that modes of reproduction should also present great
diversity both in general character and in detail. We shall find it both
interesting and instructive to consider some of the many different
modes of reproduction, or generation, observed in different classes of
living beings, previous to entering upon the specific study of
reproduction in man. Before doing thus, however, let us give brief
attention to a theoretical form of generation, which cannot be called
reproduction, known as
Spontaneous Generation.--By this term is meant the supposed
formation of living creatures directly from dead matter without the
intervention of other living organisms. The theory is, in substance, an
old one. The ancients supposed that the frogs and other small reptiles
so abundant in the vicinity of slimy pools and stagnant marshes, were
generated spontaneously from the mud and slime in which they lived.
This theory was, of course, abandoned when the natural history of
reptiles became known.
For several thousand years the belief was still held that maggots found
in decaying meat were produced spontaneously; but it was discovered,
centuries ago, that maggots are not formed if the flesh is protected from
flies, since they are the larvae, or young, of a species of this insect. A
relic of the ancient belief in spontaneous generation is still found in the
supposition that horse-hair snakes, so-called, are really formed from the
hairs of horses. This belief is quite common, but science long ago
exposed its falsity.
When the microscope was discovered it revealed a whole new world of
infinitesimal beings which were at first supposed to be of spontaneous

origin; but careful scientific investigation has shown that even these
mere specks of life are not independent of parentage. M. Pasteur and,
more recently, Prof. Tyndall, with many other distinguished scientists,
have demonstrated this fact beyond all reasonable chance for question.
It is, then, an established law that every living organism originates with
some previously