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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



molecular arrangement of every kind, then the t 

 position is of necessity correct ; if in its ordinary ' 

 acceptation, then nothing can be further from 

 the truth. It is not absolutely certain (although 

 probable) that water can be decomposed by heat 

 alone, without some catalytic or electrolytic 

 agency ; but it is quite certain that it cannot be 

 so decomposed except at the temperature of 

 white-hot platinum, several thousand degrees of 

 Fahrenheit ; and, if we grant that the water in a 

 battery might reach the temperature of 100°, we 

 should make a very liberal allowance: so that it 

 is quite impossible to attribute any given decom- 

 position to heat, in any rational sense, that is, in 

 the present state of our knowledge. It may be 

 very philosophical to consider all forces as one, 

 and this one mechanical, and call it heat ; but 

 such hasty generalizations tend but little to any 

 true advancement of science. 



As little can we hope for any true knowledge 

 of the nature of life until the scientific world 

 absolutely rejects from its domain, as non-science, 

 all such statements as the following : 



" On tracing the line of life backward we see it 

 approaching more and more to what we call the 

 purely physical condition. We come at length to 

 those organisms which I have compared to drops 

 of oil, suspended in a mixture of alcohol and 

 water. We reach the protogenes of Haeckel, in 

 which we have a type distinguishable from a frag- 

 ment of albumen only by its finely-granular char- 

 acter." 1 



There are occasions where it is a duty to use 

 the plainest of language, and this seems to be 

 one of them ; and I must be permitted to say that 

 this is in no sense whatever either physiology or 

 physical science, but is in direct contradiction to 

 both. There is no gradual transition from non- 

 living to living matter ; there is no approach, not 

 the very slightest, to the physical condition, in 

 any form of living matter. If the protogenes is a 

 living organism, its life inheres in a compound 

 just as complex in chemical and molecular con- 

 stitution as the gray matter of the human brain ; 

 and its functions are as far removed, essentially, 

 from those of non-living matter, as incapable of 

 imitation or explanation by physical agencies. 

 Prof. Tait's recent remarks on this subject are 

 well worthy of attention. In his recent address 

 " On the Teaching of Natural Philosophy," he 

 remarks : 



" To say that even the very lowest form of life, 

 not to speak of its higher forms, still less of voli- 

 tion and consciousness, can be fully explained on 



i " Fragment* of Science," p. 534. 



physical principles alone, i. e., by the mere rela- 

 tive motions and interactions of portions of inani- 

 mate matter, however refined and sublimated, is 

 simply unscientific. There is absolutely nothing 

 known in physical science which can lend the 

 slightest support to such an idea." 



Matter is here alluded to as inanimate, but 

 some of our philosophers do not accept this 

 qualification. Haeckel, as has been mentioned, 

 considers all material objects as equally living ; 

 and Prof. Tyndall, besides seeing in matter the 

 "promise and potency" of all life, considers that 

 with more refined faculties we might observe 

 " not only the vegetable, but the mineral world, 

 responsive to the proper irritants ; " in other 

 words, we should find that mere elementary mat- 

 ter is endowed with the attribute of sensation or 

 consciousness. It is not necessary to dwell on 

 these opinions ; for, even on the very liberal sup- 

 position that they mean, or are intended to mean, 

 anything at all, they certainly come under the 

 category of positions which are not refutable be- 

 cause they are not verifiable. "Life" and "liv- 

 ing " are collective (we may almost say arbitrary) 

 terms applied to special phenomena only mani- 

 fested in such combinations as carbon, hydrogen, 

 oxygen, and nitrogen, as have attained a certain 

 definite and uniform amount of complexity — com- 

 binations which preserve a virtual identity wher- 

 ever they are found — whether in the dull fora- 

 minifer, or in those " broad disks of glossy jelly 

 which may be seen pulsating through the waters 

 of a calm sea," or in "the flower which a girl 

 wears in her hair, and the blood which courses 

 through her youthful veins." i To apply these 

 terms, therefore, to any phenomena manifested 

 in other and simpler forms of matter, elementary 

 or otherwise, is just as rational as it would be to 

 assert that an induced electric current can origi- 

 nate spontaneously in a rod of homogeneous 

 metal ; or that, if our perceptions were sufficient- 

 ly acute, we should observe every piece of brass 

 or steel performing the functions of a locomotive- 

 engine. It is to be hoped that we have heard the 

 last of these attempts to make Science ridiculous, 

 by calling. upon her to support an absurd and im- 

 possible paradox. A scientific fact ought to be 

 as sacred as a moral principle. 



It is unnecessary to pursue this part of the 

 inquiry further; it is evident that this attack 

 upon man's free-will and his spiritual nature has 

 failed as signally, as disastrously, as all similar 

 attacks have failed under whatever banner they 

 have advanced. It is not for us to say what the 



1 P. 54, Prof. Huxley's "Physical Basis of Life." 



