LIFE AS MECHANISM 



ical units but also that there is no real correspond- 

 ence between mental and physical states. 



It is a serious charge to make, but after reading 

 and weighing the evidence which biologists present to 

 prove that biological and psychological phenomena 

 are not irreconcilable with physical phenomena, I 

 can, after a life spent in investigating the phenomena 

 and laws of physics, find no meaning in their state- 

 ments. The biologist who sins least in his reckless 

 treatment of physics is Professor D'Arcy Thompson. 

 I agree with him that there is an immense field of in- 

 quiry connecting physical energy with the functions 

 of the body which biologists have not touched. It is 

 possible that the cleavage of cells as they grow larger 

 is due to surface tension and not to a vital action, 

 just as a falling stream of water is broken into drops, 

 but this action does not touch the true problem of the 

 growth of the cell nor of the selective differentiation 

 of the cell. The cause which directs the primitive cells 

 so that they, in one case, grow into the organism, man, 

 and in another case into a tree, is not physical. At the 

 other end of the scale in the reckless disregard of 

 physical law is Professor Osborn, who, either wil- 

 fully or through inability to comprehend the elemen- 

 tary laws of physics, invents his own physics. I have 

 called attention to his weird definition of energy. 

 His idea of force is equally wonderful. He amends 

 Newton's third law of motion, that the actions and 



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