THE INTERPRETATION OF LIFE 1 



By F. CARREL 



Although research has thrown much light of late upon the 

 phenomenon of life, our knowledge is still sufficiently limited to 

 permit of the existence of two main schools of thought each offering 

 a different interpretation of its meaning. The smaller and less 

 active school may be said to be a descendant of all the animistic 

 thought which has preceded it : the creed it adopts is now known 

 as Vitalism, a doctrine according to which the life process is 

 under the guidance or direction of a certain animating influence 

 or principle. The larger and more active school is that of 

 biological determinism, which pursues the experimental method 

 and tends to teach that life is due to chemical processes, a section 

 holding that these may eventually be reproduced. 



Modern vitalism has various exponents, some more and some 

 less metaphysical in the character of their minds. The former 

 aim at proving that life does not exist by virtue of the forces 

 which apparently combine to produce it but because of the direc- 

 tion which is given to them from an extraneous source ; the 

 latter consider that the life phenomenon is chiefly distinguishable 

 from the physico-chemical by the form which it assumes. 



One of the best exponents of the theory of direction, who also 

 uses at times the argument of form, is Grasset. According to 

 this writer, there are in the human body certain evidences of 

 an extraneous influence which guides, regulates and maintains 

 existence. We know through physiology that although we 

 are unconscious of the working of our internal organisation, 

 activities are in operation within our bodies which maintain 

 life. This condition of things Grasset regards as due to some 

 influence other than that of chemical change; he adduces in 

 support of this view the facts that the blood and the interstitial 

 liquid of the tissues and organs are in a fixed osmotic equili- 

 brium, always preserving the same force of diffusion and 

 exchange with the exterior environment, the agent of the 



1 We shall probably comment in a later number on the issues raised in this 

 article. — Eds. 



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