328 HOW TO WORK 



world will be indubitably established on a secure basis. At the same 

 time, being careful to insist that those who think the tendency of 

 observation is towards an opposite conclusion, are certainly mistaken, 

 and in some instances bigoted and unworthy of credit. As if, where 

 real knowledge was defective, anything save individual notoriety of the 

 most evanescent kind, was to be gained by a man asserting himself 

 to be the only real and true scientific prophet. Nevertheless, the 

 prowess shown by the " positive " knight errants in assaulting the 

 " fictitious entities " which have so long and cruelly tyrannised over 

 the innocent and thoughtful must be admitted, and the disinterested 

 longing exhibited by them to emancipate the human understanding 

 from the tyranny of imaginary powers which have so long enchained 

 it, would indeed be much to be admired, were it not clear, that these 

 same deliverers, who would exultingly snap the gossamer chains 

 spun round us during successive ages by the fictitious entities and 

 imaginary forces, would deliver us to be bound hand and foot with 

 the heavy fetters forged by unimaginative relentless force, and lead 

 us into interminable blackness where all power of seeing and 

 thinking would soon cease. 



The physico-chemical school has, I think, only added to the con- 

 fusion which has long existed in men's minds concerning the nature of 

 the actions going on in living beings, and in spite of all its professed 

 care, and exactness, denominates phenomena, which are essentially 

 the same, vital or physical, according as they occur in a living 

 organism or outside it. A change taking place in a glass vessel on 

 the laboratory table is chemical, while if the very same change 

 occurred in the body of an animal, it would be called vital. Now, 

 surely the name given to any phenomenon should depend upon its 

 own nature real or supposed, not upon the locality in which the 

 phenomenon is manifested. It would be as unreasonable to call the 

 same colour red or blue according as its position was altered without 

 the least change in its appearance, as to call a change electrical or 

 chemical if it occurred upon a table, and vital if it occurred in the 

 organism of a living animal. 



It will have been noticed that the word vital has been applied 

 by me to changes and actions quite distinct from, and indeed in their 

 nature opposed to, chemical, physical, &c., and I endeavour to define 

 the precise seat of vital action, and to draw a sharp line between the 

 vital, and merely physical and chemical phenomena. 



388. Of Living; and Dead. The terms living and dead have 

 for me a meaning somewhat different from that commonly accepted. 

 If my arguments are sound the greater part of the body of an adult 

 man or animal, at any moment consists of matter to all intents 



