PRESENT-DAY BIOLOGICAL THOUGHT 67 



in biology, in America and Germany at least, may be 

 summed up in this statement : 



"Vitalism and Mechanism seem to be antiquated ways 

 of looking at the problem of organic activity, and will be 

 replaced by more modern views on this subject. The con- 

 trast between Vitalism and Mechanism is probably a 

 fictitious one. An irresistible trend of thought and feeling 

 in biology, based on the aggregate of positive results 

 gained in the various subdivisions of technical research 

 will, I am quite sure, bring about the final disappearance 

 of the old conflict between Vitalism and Mechanism with 

 no out-and-out victory for either side. 



''This conflict has been due largely to the prevalance 

 in it of a maximum of speculation and a minimum of 

 common sense. That many of the structures and activi- 

 ties of any individual animal are mechanical in the sense 

 that they act to a large extent according to the prin- 

 ciples of mechanics is so obvious, that nobody questions 

 it as long as he thinks and speaks as an ordinary mortal. 

 Compare the workings of our own limbs with the work- 

 ing of levers, for instance. 



"But even the hard-boiled mechanist never questions 

 (so long as he remains true to himself just as an every- 

 day human being) that the individuals in which these 

 mechanical activities go on are alive — are living; nor 

 does he hesitate to call the activities vital. 



"Now, it is not doubtful, as I see the matter, what it 

 is, conceptually, that is working most strongly toward 

 the laying of this old bogy. It is what has been for sev- 



