“Dissolution, putrefaction,” said Hans Castorp. “They are the same thing as combustion: combination with oxygen⁠—am I right?”

“To a T. Oxidization.”

“And life?”

“Oxidization too. The same. Yes, young man, life too is principally oxidization of the cellular albumen, which gives us that beautiful animal warmth, of which we sometimes have more than we need. Tut, living consists in dying, no use mincing the matter⁠— une destruction organique , as some Frenchman with his native levity has called it. It smells like that, too. If we don’t think so, our judgment is corrupted.”

“And if one is interested in life, one must be particularly interested in death, mustn’t one?”

“Oh, well, after all, there is some sort of difference. Life is life which keeps the form through change of substance.”