528 THE GRAMMAR OF SCIENCE 



complexity from inorganic forms. And although we 

 cannot definitely assert that life is a mechanism (p. 341) 

 until we know more exactly what we mean by the term 

 mechanism as applied to organic corpuscles, there still 

 seems little doubt that some of the generalisations of 

 physics — notably the great principle of the conservation 

 of energy — do describe at least part of our perceptual 

 experience of living organisms. A branch of science is 

 therefore needed dealing with the application of the laws 

 of inorganic phenomena, or Physics, to the development 

 of ors^anic forms. This branch of science which en- 

 deavours to show that the facts of Biology — of Hlorphology, 

 Embryology and Physiology — constitute particular cases 

 of general physical laws has been termed Aetiology} 

 It would perhaps be better to call it Bio-physics. This 

 science does not appear to have advanced very far 

 at present, but it not improbably has an important 

 future. 



Thus just as Applied MatJieinatics link Abstract Science 

 to the Physical Sciences, so Bio-physics attempt to link the 

 Physical and Biological Sciences together. 



si jii. C Abstract Science. 

 a :^ r Concrete bcience. 



1-^ I _ 



Physics. Biology. 

 Bio-physics. 



J Applied Mathematics and Bio -physics iare thus the two 

 links between the three great divisions of science, and 

 only when their work has been fully accomplished, shall 

 we be able to realise von Helmholtz's prediction and 

 conceive all scientific formulae, all natural laws, as laws of 

 motion (p. 276). This goal we must, however, admit is 

 at present indefinitely distant. 



1 From the Greek aiTiov, a cause. The name does not seem \ ery aptly 

 chosen, especially as it has a very definite meaning of older origin in medical 

 practice. 



