192 THE ANATOMY OF SCIENCE 



dices which disturb the calm contemplation of 

 nature; his also is the subject which everyone 

 feels competent to talk about — even a chemist. 



It is not therefore surprising that he has 

 been willing to accept and to impose upon his 

 fellows a sterner discipline and a greater meas- 

 ure of prohibitory legislation than is elsewhere 

 the custom. If I ignore some of these prohibi- 

 tions I shall probably be called names ; perhaps 

 already some who have read my last two chap- 

 ters will have called me a vitalist, but I confess 

 to so complete an ignorance as to the meaning 

 of the term that I should not know whether or 

 not to be pleased b}^ the epithet. 



Certainly there is no necessity for invoking 

 a "vital force" ; for after all it is a crude sort of 

 science which attributes all physical processes 

 to mechanical and electrical forces ; all chemical 

 processes to chemical forces; all vital processes 

 to vital forces. But everyone must admit the 

 existence of great phenomena lying far beyond 

 the petty domain which is under the nominal 

 jurisdiction of the laws of physics and chemis- 

 try. If I am forced to acknowledge some creed 

 with respect to vital phenomena, I shall be like 

 the backwoods farmer who was asked if he be- 



