of growing into perfect plants whenever they may be brought
into contact with suitable external conditions. We must presume that
either (1) during this long lapse of centuries the 'vital principle' of
the plant has been imprisoned in the most dreary and impenetrable of
dungeons, whither no sister effluence from the general 'soul of nature'
could affect it; or else (2) that the germ of the future living plant is
there only in the form of an inherited structure, whose molecular
complexities are of such a kind that, after moisture has restored
mobility to its atoms, its potential life may pass into actual life.
Some of the lowest forms of animals and plants have such a tenacity to
life that their vital manifestation may be kept in abeyance for five,
ten, fifteen, or even twenty years. Though not living any more than the
wheat, they also retain the potentiality of manifestation of life; and
for each alike, in order that this potentiality may pass into actuality,
the first requisition is water with which to restore them to that
possibility of molecular rearrangement under the influence of incident
forces, of which the absence of water had deprived them, and without
which, life in any real sense is impossible."

ANALYSIS OF A MAN.

(BY PROF. MILLER.)

A man 5 feet 8 inches high, weighing 154 pounds.

lbs. oz. grs.
Oxygen 111 0 0
Hydrogen 14 0 0
Carbon 21 0 0
Nitrogen 3 10 0

Inorganic elements in the ash:

Phosphorus 1 2 88
Calcium 2 0 0
Sulphur 0 0 219
Chlorine 0 2 47

1 ounce = 437 grains.

Sodium 0 2 116
Iron 0 0 100
Potassium 0 0 290
Magnesium 0 0 12
Silica 0 0 2

Total 154 0 0

The quantity of the substances found in a human body
weighing 154 pounds:

lbs. oz. grs.
Water 111 0 0
Gelatin 15 0 0
Albumen 4 3 0
Fibrine 4