1899] A VERBOSE VITALISE 243 



another world peopled by strange creatures called biophors and deter- 

 minants, and worse. These things do not of course surprise or shock 

 us, for we have realised the value of the statistical study of variations, 

 the need of keeping on good terms with philosophy, and that Weis- 

 mann's symbols are " not mere fanciful images, but realities," as he 

 says, " in the same sense in which chemical atoms and molecules are 

 realities." We are not surprised at these papers ; what surprises us 

 is that so few people seem to read them. A fragment of skin from a 

 Patagonian cave seems to excite more interest than one of Karl 

 Pearson's mathematical contributions to the study of evolution ; the 

 problem of trituberculy is familiar, but Mr. Sandeman's " Problems of 

 Biology " remains unheeded ; discussions of mimicry abound, but we 

 might almost count on our fiugers the English references to Weismann's 

 essay on Germinal Selection. Is it that we have forgotten our 

 mathematics, is it that we have become after many lessons " philo- 

 sophie-scheu," or is it that our love of the concrete is too strong ? 

 There are these and other reasons on our side, but it must be allowed 

 that the fault is not wholly ours. It is certain that one reason why 

 contributions to the philosophy of biology are so frequently dis- 

 regarded, is the author's low standard of lucidity. Enigmatical 

 sentences, tense with meaning, may be gloated over if they are written 

 by Browning, but not if they come from a biologist. Aphorisms 

 which sound as if they meant much (as they probably do), which 

 seem, however, only successful in keeping their meaning hidden, may 

 be entertaining in a novel by Meredith, but they are only irritating in 

 an essay on morphogenesis. Thus, through the carelessness of authors 

 and the busy preoccupation of readers, we are left to continue our 

 work but slightly influenced by the constantly growing mass of occult 

 biological literature. We know of a prominent worker who bundled 

 up one of these voluminous riddles, labelled it " Davidson's Secret," 

 and threw it on the top shelf ; and we quite sympathise with any busy 

 biologist who should similarly treat the little book before us. It is 

 called " Die Lokalisation morphogenetischer Vorgange. Ein Beweis 

 vitalistischen Geschehens " (Engelmann : Leipzig, 1899, pp. 82, 3 figs.). 

 It might be flippantly called " The Mystery of Hans Driesch." 



It was begun, we are told, at San Martino de Castrozza 9 ix. 98, 

 finished at Naples 19 xi. 98 ; and it was originally published in the 

 Archiv fur Entwickelungsmechanih cler Organismen. Its importance, we 

 read, lies in the fact that it not merely suggests but proves the 

 necessity of recognising a new and peculiar orderliness (Gesetzlichkeit) 

 in certain vital phenomena. It contains a proof of vitalism. And by 

 vitalism is here meant the recognition of the unique character of 

 organisms, the recognition of what transcends the categories of 

 mechanism, — " diejenige Auffassung, welche in Lebensgeschenissen 

 Vorgange mit ihnen eigenthumlicher Elementargesetzlichkeit erblickt." 



The key-note is in the word " localisation." It is especially the 



