194 THE ANATOMY OF SCIENCE 



nature was an exhibition of such purpose. Then 

 by way of reaction came the sway of mechanism, 

 which bravely strove to embrace every process, 

 from the revolution of the planets to the writing" 

 of Hamlet; and the lineal descendant of this 

 mechanistic philosophy is the physicochemism 

 of the present day. Certainly far more may be 

 accomplished by studying the physical chemis- 

 try of vital processes than by speculating about 

 a thunderstorm's purpose or an atom's loves 

 and hates, for there is no evidence for them at 

 all, while many processes in living cells are iden- 

 tical T\dth those that we meet in laboratories of 

 physics and chemistry; and there are many 

 others which will be interpretable in a larger 

 physical chemistry which the further study of 

 these vital processes will itself bring into being. 

 Nevertheless, it is indisputable that many of 

 the characteristic properties of living beings, 

 are not only far beyond the reach of existing 

 physical science, but are not even suggested by 

 the most remote extrapolation of the laws and 

 theories that we have made to fit the inorganic 

 world. We see no limit to the interesting and 

 useful results that will inevitably come from a 

 further application of the methods of physics 

 and chemistry to the physiology of animals and 



