THE INDIRECT JUSTIFICATION OF ENTELECHY 167 



as given out, and were measured according to their heat of 

 combustion also. 



Thus we see that the principle of the conservation of 

 energy is actually or probably demonstrated by the organism 

 in the clearest form ; but, what is still more important, we 

 also have seen that it would " hold " for the organism, even 

 if the forms of energy known to us should not appear 

 sufficient to form a complete equation of the organism's 

 economy. 



On a Supposed Vital Energy 



But what about the role of entelechy, and what about 

 its relation to energy ? Ostwald, the present head of the 

 energetical school, and many others following him, have 

 admitted that, in cases of morphogenesis, and probably in 

 nervous phenomena too, some unknown potential forms of 

 energy may be at work ; and, in fact, a few such authors, 

 as Bechterew, for instance, claim to be real " vitalists ' at 

 the same time, stating that the specificity of vital pheno- 

 mena and their autonomy is due to the peculiarities which 

 that unknown energy possesses, just as mechanical energy 

 has its peculiarities regarding direction in space, and 

 radiating energy regarding periodicity. 



In order not to complicate our problem we say nothing 

 in this place about the general question whether it may 

 seem advisable altogether to deal with the concept of 

 energy in this manner, regarding it as elemental, and speak- 

 ing of " properties " and peculiarities of energy. Elsewhere 1 

 I have fully explained that I should not like to adopt such 



1 Naturbegriffe und Natururteilc, Leipzig, 1904. 



