LIFE AND EXPERIMENT 



biology, a conception which resulted from years of expe- 

 rience and which by determining more and more my 

 mode of experimenting had a considerable influence on the 

 formation of my theory of the state of being alive. In order 

 to set my conception off from that maintained by a sub- 

 stantial number of biologists, I begin by defining their 

 point of view. 



I refer to the so-called "physico-chemical" school of 

 biology. Specific example is often the best of definitions. 

 I could give many examples from the writings of the 

 "physico-chemical" biologists to define their position; one 

 will suffice. Says Loeb^: 



The physical researches of the last ten years have put the 

 atomistic theory of matter and electricity on a definite and 

 in all probability permanent basis. We know the exact 

 number of molecules in a given mass of any substance whose 

 molecular weight is known to us, and we know the exact 

 charge of a single electron. This permits us to state as the 

 ultimate aim of the physical sciences the visualization of all 

 phenomena in terms of groupings and displacements of ulti- 

 mate particles, and since there is no discontinuity between 

 the matter constituting the living and non-living world the 

 goal of biology can be expressed in the same way. 



It is often said that in their thinking biologists are the 

 most mechanistic of scientists, holding fast to concepts 

 that the most mechanistic astronomers even have aban- 

 doned. Indeed, many biologists besides Loeb believed — 

 and many even now believe — that biology as a science must 

 finally be concerned with the ultimate particles, that life 

 as well as all physical phenomena can be interpreted on the 

 mechanistic basis of the motion of particles in a system that 

 is rigidly ordered as to time and space. But so far any 

 attempt at "the visualization of all phenomena in terms of 

 groupings and displacements of ultimate particles" has 



1 Loeb, igi6. 



II 



