The physiologist cannot afford to lose this process from the category of chemico-vital, or biochemical manifestations.[45] The philosophy of the age has a tendency to make every thing chemical; it is true that the Divinity is as much seen in the laws which govern the elementary particles of matter, as in those laws which preside over the transmutation and sustentation of those elementary and inorganic particles, when compounded in the tissues which are engaged in the formation of living beings. The laws by which acids and alkalies neutralize each other, and the affinities single, double and elective, which the particles of matter exhibit, together with the influences of light, heat, and electricity upon almost every condition of matter, are as truly wonderful as the creative power. Man may, in many instances, imitate the processes of nature, he can render iron magnetic, and form alkaloids, but the {119} laws which govern the particles of matter are still the secret of the whole proceedings. We do but interpret the language of nature in discovery, the book is ever open before us, and every atom of the world is a word and a theme, capable of occupying the short span of sublunary existence allotted to man. We have read of "sermons in stones," but a book has been written on a "pebble."[46] To return, as we every where in nature find a gradual transition in the forms, arrangements and properties of matter, so we may expect to find a link between the inorganic and vital chemistry of nature. The fungi, by which we contend this transition appears to be accomplished, are also a link in chemical composition, between the animal and vegetable kingdom, and not only in that, but in their subsisting upon matter which has been organized, they are deoxidizers and reducers, as the vegetable kingdom in its highest function is a compounder. To their functions and offices in the great scheme of creation, we may fairly apply ourselves with a sure and certain result of the most interesting discovery. Is it no hint that wherever decaying organic matter is found, there do we find fungi? is it no hint that they are found in all parts of the world? that even in snow the germs of fungi will grow and multiply to such an extent, according to Capt. Ross, that the protococcus was seen {120} by him, clothing the sides of the mountains at Baffin's Bay, rising, according to his report, to the height of several _hundred feet_, and extending to the distance of _eight miles_?