WISLIZENUS — THOUGHTS ON MATTER AND FORCE. 303 



" Electricity produces motions directly by attraction and 

 repulsion of bodies ; it produces indirectly heat, light, and 

 chemical action. 



"Magnetism, when put in motion, will produce electricity, 

 and magnetic effects are produced by electricity. Magnet- 

 ism can, through the medium of electricity, produce heat, 

 light, and chemical affinity. 



"It appears, that in many cases, where one of the forces is 

 excited, all the others are also set in action. Thus, when a 

 substance, such as sulphuret of antimony, is electrified, at the 

 instant of electrization it becomes magnetic, in directions at 

 right angles to the lines of electric force ; at the same time 

 it becomes heated to an extent greater or less accord in g 

 to the intensity of the electric force. If this intensity 

 be exalted to a certain point, the sulphuret becomes lumi- 

 nous, or light is produced ; it expands, consequently mo- 

 tion is produced, (and its specific gravity altered,) and it 

 is decomposed, therefore chemical action is produced. 



" The great problem which remains to be solved in regard 

 to the correlation of physical forces, is the establishment of 

 their equivalents of power for each of them, or their meas- 

 urable relation to a given standard." 



All matter that is controlled exclusively by physical 

 forces, is called inorganic. But there are numerous bodies, 

 whose actions and motions cannot be satisfactorily explained 

 by mere physical forces, and which exhibit, besides them, a 

 new and higher force, to which physical forces are subordi- 

 nate — the vital force. Such bodies are called organic, be- 

 cause they are possessed with many organs (instruments), by 

 which their various functions and manifestations of life are 

 executed. 



Vital force is the force, which regulates the combined 

 action of physical forces in a living body to organic 

 formation, promoting thereby the natural, typical and indi- 

 vidual, development of such bodies, and combating, as far as 

 possible, the tendency of the unrestrained physical forces to 

 the destruction of organic existence. 



There was a time, when almost all the processes in living 

 bodies were directly ascribed to vital force. The progress 

 of physical sciences, especially chemistry, has destroyeof this 

 illusion. We know now that most of the processes in 

 organic bodies, formerly unexplained, are carried on by 

 means of uninterrupted chemical action of a far more com- 

 pound nature than in inorganic bodies. The processes of 

 digestion, of respiration, of animal heat, of assimilation, of 

 elimination, etc., have all been reduced to chemical actions, 

 by means of which external influences, such as food, air, 

 water, etc., are made subservient to the support and mainte- 

 nance of organic life. Chemical affinity, so far as physical 



