276 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT. 



*' Every particle that enters into the composition of a muscle, a 

 nerve, or a bone, has been placed in its position by molecular 

 force. And unless the existence of law in these matters be de- 

 nied, and the element of caprice introduced, we must conclude 

 that, given the relation of any molecule of the body to its environ- 

 ment, its position in the body might be predicted. Our difficulty 

 is not with the quality of the problem, but with its complexity ; and 

 this difficulty might be met by the simple expansion of the facul- 

 ties which man now possesses. Given this expansion, and given 

 tlie necessary molecular data, and the chick might be deduced as 

 rigorously and as logically from the Ggg as the existence of Nep- 

 tune was deduced from the disturbances of Uranus, or as conical 

 refraction was deduced from the undulatory theory of light. 



" In affirming that the growth of the body is mechanical, and 

 that thought, as exercised by us, has its correlative in the physics 

 of the brain, I think the position of the ' materialist' is stated as 

 far as that position is a tenable one. I think the materialist will 

 be able finally to maintain this position against all attacks; but I 

 do not think, as the human mind is at present constituted, that he 

 can pass beyond it. I do not think he is entitled to sa}^ that his mo- 

 lecular groupings and his molecular motions explain everything. 

 In reality they explain nothing. The utmost he can affirm is the 

 association of two classes of phenomena, of whose real bond of 

 union he is in absolute ignorance. The problem of the connection 

 of body and soul is as insoluble in its modern form as it was in the 

 pre-scientific ages." 



ON VITALITY AS A MODE OF MOTION. 



According to Dr. Thompson Dickson, in a paper presented to 

 the British Association, in 1868, somatic life, or the life of a com- 

 plex organism, is merely the sum of the vitality of the countless 

 myriads of cells which together make up the organism; but since 

 in the organic body the cells are collected into si)ecial masses, des- 

 tined to perform various and special functions, so the various vital 

 attributes which in a simple elementary cell are diffused, become 

 in the organized body separate and specially centralized in the 

 especial collection of cells destined for the performance of particu- 

 lar functions. 



The evidences that vital potential energ}-, or the inherent influ- 

 ence which we term the vitality of an organism, is a mode of mo- 

 tion, when collated, may be resolved into three propositions, — 

 showing, first, that it is iforce ; second, that the force is something 

 more than vis ineo'tice; and, third, that tiie force is convertible into 

 and correlative with the other physical forces. 



1. Vital potential energy is a force, since the only repellent 

 of one force is another acting in a contrar}' direction, and, as we 

 shall show, every elementary force operating on a living cell or 

 organism meets with vital potential energy repelling or resisting 

 it, therefore vital potential energy, or this intrinsic influence, is a 

 force. 2. This force is something more than vis inertia, or that 



