CRITICISMS AND DIFFICULTIES 35 



'The brilliant beginnings of organic synthesis,' wrote 

 Jacques Duclaux a short while ago, 'had raised hopes that 

 this chasm which separates physics and chemistry from 

 biology could be crossed by the resources of organic 

 chemistry alone. . . . The oft-employed formula according 

 to which living organisms obey the same laws as inert 

 chemical compounds, dates of this period. The idea that 

 such a formula could have been seriously given makes us 

 smile to-day. Pushed to such a point, optimism is no longer 

 a quality.' 



Those who have studied living matter and elementary 

 organisms in the laboratory by means of the most advanced 

 methods of physics and chemistry, and have surrounded them- 

 selves with the greatest precautions, know well that everything 

 happens as if 'life was a struggle against the physical laws', 

 as Professor Lapicque puts it. It is not without interest to 

 compare this phrase with that of Bichat, cited at the beginning 

 of this chapter: 'Life is the combination of functions which 

 resist death.' How surprised Claude Bernard would have 

 been had he been told that sixty years later, his successor, 

 instead of having more proofs of what he already considered 

 assured, would on the contrary express himself with far more 

 prudence? 



Consequently, from the physical as well as the chemical 

 point of view, one of the obstacles which we have to surmount 

 is the following: we try to apply the laws of inorganized 

 matter to phenomena which are dependent on them without, 

 however, obeying them completely. The deviations which 

 we observe are the measure of our ignorance. Donnan's 

 famous equilibrium is never rigorously found on both sides 

 of a living membrane. As far as osmotic pressure is con- 

 cerned, the cells do not function like a Dutrochet osmometer. 

 The difference of pressure which exists only maintains itself 

 thanks to the work produced by living matter which plays a 

 fundamental part. It is the phenomenon which Lapicque 

 named 'Epictese'. The electric resistance of a cellular 



