leaves of plants, is the starting-point of life; upon it alone is based the possibility of the existence of the organic kingdom. The running down of the matter there raised determines the vital phenomena of germination, of pale plants, and even of some of the vital phenomena of green plants, and all the vital phenomena of the animal kingdom. The stability of chemical compounds, usable as plant-food, is such that a peculiar contrivance and peculiar conditions found only in the green leaves of plants are necessary for their decomposition. We see, therefore, also, why animals as well as pale plants cannot feed on mineral matter.
We easily see also why the animal activity of carnivora is greater than that of herbivora, for the amount of force necessary for the assimilation of their albuminoid food is small, and therefore a larger amount is left over for animal activity. Their food is already on plane No. 4; assimilation, therefore, is little more than a shifting on the plane No. 4 from a liquid to a solid condition—from liquid albuminoid of the blood to solid albuminoid of the tissues.
We see also why the internal activity of plants may conceivably be only of one kind; for, drawing their force from the sun, tissue-making is not necessarily dependent on tissue-decay. While, on the other hand, the internal activity of animals must be of two kinds, decay and repair; for animals always draw a portion of
