at passes over the
surface of the earth, modifies the bodies with which it comes in
contact. The great toe of the bronze statue of Saint Peter at Rome has
been reduced, it is said, to less than half its original size by the
successive kisses of the faithful.

In _dead_ or _inanimate_ matter, the destructive influence of action is
constantly forced upon our attention by every thing passing around us,
and so much human ingenuity is exercised to counteract its effects that
no reflecting person will dispute the universality of its operation. But
when we observe shrubs and trees waving in the wind, and animals
undergoing violent exertion, year after year, and continuing to increase
in size, we may be inclined, on a superficial view, to regard _living_
bodies as constituting an exception to this rule. On more careful
examination, however, it will appear that waste goes on in living bodies
not only without intermission, but with a rapidity immeasurably beyond
that which occurs in inanimate objects.

In the vegetable world, for instance, every leaf of a tree is
incessantly pouring out some of its fluids, and every flower forming its
own fruit and seed, speedily to be separated from, and lost to its
parent stem; thus causing in a few months an extent of waste many
hundred times greater than what occurs in the same lapse of time after
the tree is cut down, and all its living operations are at a close.

The same thing holds true in the animal kingdom: so long as life
continues, a copious exhalation from the skin, the lungs, the bowels,
and the kidneys goes on without a moment's intermission, and not a
movement can be performed which does not in some degree increase the
circulation, and add to the general waste. In this way, during violent
exertion, several ounces of the fluids of the body are sometimes thrown
out by perspiration in a very few minutes; whereas, after life is
extinguished, all the excretions cease, and waste is limited to that
which results from ordinary chemical decomposition.[6]

[6] For the views presented in the preceding paragraph (as also in
several that follow) I would acknowledge my indebtedness to Dr. Andrew
Combe's treatise on the "Physiology of Digestion." From the "Principles
of Physiology," by the same author, I have already quoted. These
admirable works will prove an invaluable treasure to persons desirous of
becoming acquainted with the laws of health.

So far, then, the law that