66 NATIONAL TRENDS IN BIOLOGY 



which make us appreciate life to the fullest, whenever 

 and wherever it may be found. 



Of these outstanding biologists from whom I have 

 sought opinions, I find but comparatively few who are 

 willing to go on record as out-and-out mechanists. Most 

 of them probably feel as the educated people of the 

 United States feel when prohibition is discussed — that 

 no one with any intelligence can be a "dry" and no one 

 with any decency can be a "wet." So many crimes have 

 been committed in the name of each, that few are willing 

 to align themselves as partisans. Thus it seems to be with 

 Vitalism and Mechanism. 



Probably the best summary of those leaning toward 

 the mechanistic side is shown by the statement of one 

 who said "most biological workers are practical mechan- 

 ists , though they admit that life may be something more 

 than Mechanism." Or, by another phrasing it thus : "they 

 are mechanistic in practice, but agnostic in opinion." 



Another adds, "It is always dangerous to make cate- 

 gorical classifications, but a majority of American biolo- 

 gists are not disposed to believe in Vitalism, if by that is 

 meant that there is in living matter some principle en- 

 tirely different from that found in the organic world; 

 that is to say, some principle entirely outside the range 

 of physics and chemistry; on the other hand, I do not 

 know that these workers would care to be styled "mechan- 

 ists," because of the rather crude ideas that have come 

 to be associated with the term." 



But the opinion of men who stand at the very heights 



