The Natuke of Physical Reality 85 



ing to whether the approaching molecules or ions 

 are of one kind or another. This will result in a 

 sorting out of different kinds of molecules or ions 

 from one another so as to build up osmotic or 

 hydrostatic pressures or electric potentials. Proc- 

 esses such as these will take place irrespective of 

 the second law of thermodynamics because the 

 energy which is thus rendered available will not 

 have been obtained entirely from the oxidation of 

 food material but partly from the heat of the sur- 

 roundings. 



Vital energy of this sort should not be confused 

 with vital force, for the two have nothing in com- 

 mon. The principle of vital energy is entirely 

 consistent with the laws of nature and supple- 

 ments rather than contradicts them, whereas the 

 doctrine of vital force assumes the existence of 

 some mysterious power which is supposed to act 

 in contravention to the laws of physics and chem- 

 istry to control such processes as metabolism, 

 growth, and reproduction. Vital energy is within 

 the realm of the comprehensible and the possible 

 existence of such a form of energy has been sug- 

 gested by physicists long before the conception of 

 the spirazine hypothesis, whereas vital force is 

 supposed to be something which is incomprehen- 

 sible to the human mind, and the existence of which 

 would be contrary to all the principles of science. 



