VITAL PHENOMENA. 



75 



change which cannot be rendered evident to our senses 

 was really phenomenal ? This movement is one of the 

 essential attributes of living matter. We cannot conceive of 

 living matter without the capacity for such movement. The 

 growth of the forest could no more be accomplished with- 

 out this wonderful power of movement which overcomes 

 the attraction of gravitation, than the changes in form of 

 the simplest living particles, or the active movement of the 

 vibrio or the vibration of a cilium. The visible changes 

 which occur in the form of a mass of germinal or living 

 matter undoubtedly succeed and are a consequence of 

 antecedent changes, but what do we know about these ante- 

 cedent changes ? All we have learnt positively is that the 

 matter moves in a manner peculiar to matter of this kind. 

 Shall we account for the movement by saying that it is a 

 consequence of antecedent phenomena or that it is due to 

 an inherent tendency to move or to a property which it has 

 derived from matter like it from which it came or to some 

 mysterious agency acting from without or from within, or to 

 the action and reaction of forces acting in both directions ? 

 It is not possible to prove why the matter moves because we 

 have no means of investigating its state just prior to the 

 occurrence of the actual movement, but the universality of 

 this movement in the living world convinces us that it is of 

 the highest importance and very intimately related to life 

 itself. This movement has been shown to be peculiar and 

 so far has not been excited in any form of non-living matter. 

 Is it not, therefore, reasonable to suppose that the condition 

 which immediately precedes the occurrence of actual move- 

 ment is also peculiar to living matter ? But is it a phenomenal 



