The Breath of Life

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About this book

The Breath of Life is a book by John Burroughs. In the preface the author says that as life nears its end with him, he finds himself meditating more and more upon the mystery of its nature and origin. The author fancies he is about as far from mastering the mystery as the ant which he saw this morning industriously exploring a small section of the garden walk.

The book says life lifts inert matter up into a thousand varied and beautiful forms and holds it there for a season. The book reports that Professor Morgan found that if he destroyed half of a frog's egg after the first segmentation, the remaining half gave rise to half an embryo. The text mentions Dr. Carrel's experiments with living animal tissue immersed in a proper mother-liquid. The author says that any system of philosophy that sees in the organic world only a fortuitous concourse of chemical atoms repels him.

About the author

John Burroughs

John Burroughs (1837-1921) was an American essayist and farmer from New York's Catskills who published more than two dozen books on birds, seasons, and country life. A friend of Whitman, Roosevelt, and Edison, he was among the most widely read naturalists of his day.