18 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



of importance to have objective evidence that food is the 

 sole and adequate source of the energy which we day by 

 day or hour by hour disengage, whether in the form of heat 

 or external work. 



In the opening paragraph of this section it was observed 

 that until recently there had been no tendency to revive the 

 vitalistic notion of two generations ago. In introducing the 

 words in italics I referred to the existence at the present 

 time in Germany of a sort of reaction, which under the 

 term " Neovitalismus " has attracted some attention — -so 

 much indeed that at the Versani7nlung Deutscher Natur- 

 forscher at Ltibeck last September, it was the subject of 

 one of the general addresses. The author of this address, 

 Prof. Rindfleisch, was, I believe, the inventor of the word ; 

 but the origin of the movement is usually traced to a work 

 on Physiological Chemistry which an excellent translation 

 by the late Dr. Wooldridge has made familiar to English 

 students. The author of this work owes it to the language 

 he employs in the introduction on " Mechanism and 

 Vitalism," if his position has been misunderstood, for in 

 that introduction he distinctly ranges himself on the vital- 

 istic side. As, however, his vitalism is of such a kind as 

 not to influence his method of dealing with actual problems, 

 it is only in so far of consequence as it may affect the reader. 

 For my own part I feel grateful to Professor Bange for 

 having produced an interesting and readable book on a dry 

 subject, even though that interest may be partly due to the 

 introduction into the discussion of a question which, as he 

 presents it, is more speculative than scientific. 



As regards other physiological writers to whom vitalistic 

 tendencies have been attributed, it is to be observed that 

 none of them have even suggested that the doctrine of a 

 "vital force" in its old sense should be revived. Their 

 contention amounts to little more than this, that in certain 

 recent instances improved methods of research appear to 

 have shown that processes at first regarded as entirely 

 physical or chemical do not conform so precisely as they 

 were expected to do to chemical and physical laws. As 

 these instances are all essentially analogous, reference to 

 one will serve to explain the bearing of the rest. 



