VITAL POWER. 



is the nervous. Widely diffused, intimately concerned in 

 the actions going on in various tissues, and co-extensive 

 with most of these, it sends filaments to the very confines 

 of the organism. Through this mechanism alone, the very 

 last to be perfected, external changes affect the peculiar 

 form of living matter with which it is in the closest relation, 

 and are thus rendered evident to the living being. The 

 changes occurring in the central living matter of the 

 nervous apparatus may give rise to secondary, combined, 

 and complex actions, through which various ends may be 

 accomplished. These internal impulses are themselves the 

 movements of the particles of the living matter induced by 

 the supposed vital power or agency acting upon them. 



In animals yet higher in the scale of creation, the 

 nervous mechanism through which alone the vital power 

 influences other tissues, so as to give rise to associated and 

 combined acts, is still more perfect and elaborate ; but it is 

 formed according to and acts upon the same principles. 

 Actions most complex are carried out through the influence 

 of what is ordinarily termed will. This is essentially related 

 to life itself, and probably is the vital force or power of 

 certain kinds of living matter. But it must not be supposed 

 that vital phenomena are due to will alone, for in all cases 

 these occur long before there are any manifestations of will, 

 as the term is ordinarily understood, indeed, before the 

 tissues through which alone will operates have been de- 

 veloped. At all periods of life there are tissues which live 

 and grow independent of the influence of will. Neither 

 can instinct nor mind be regarded as life, although I think 

 these, as well as will, are forms of vital power. 



In man there seems to be seated in and limited to 



