ELEMENTARY PKOBLEM-S IN PHlf.SIOLOGY. i33 



The tendency to recognize such a relation as this, is what we mean by 

 vitalism. An anti-vitalistic tendency accompanied the great advance 

 of knowledge that took place at the middle of the century. But even 

 at the height of this movement there was a re-action towards vitalism, 

 of which Yirchow,* the founder of modern pathology, was the greatest 

 exponent. Now, a generation later, a tendency in the same direction is 

 manifesting itself in various quarters. What does this tendency mean 1? 

 It has to my mind the same significance now that it had then. Thirty 

 years ago the discovery of the cell as the basis of vital function was 

 new, and the mystery which before belonged to the organism was trans- 

 ferred to the unit, which, while it served to explain everything, was 

 itself unexplained. The discovery of the cell seemed to be a very close 

 ai)proach to the mechanism of life, but now we are striviug to get even 

 closer, and with the same result. Our measurements are more exact, 

 our methods finer; but these very methods bring us to close quarters 

 with phenomena which, although within reach of exact investigation, 

 are as regards their essence involved in a mystery which is the more 

 profound the more it is brought into contrast with the exact knowledge 

 we possess of surrounding conditions. 



If what I have said is true, there is little ground for the apprehension 

 that exists in the miuds of some, that the habit of scrutiuiziug the mech- 

 anism of life tends to make men regard what can be so learned as the 

 ouly kind of knowledge. The tendency is now certainly rather in the 

 other direction. What we have to guard against is the mixing of two 

 methods, and so far as we are concerned, the intrusion into our subject 

 of i)hilosophical speculation. Let us willingly and with our hearts do 

 homage to ''divine philosophy," but let that homage be rendered out- 

 side the limits of our science. Let those who are so inclined, cross the 

 trontier and philosoi)hize; but to me it appers more conducive to pro- 

 gress that we should do our best to furnish professed philosophers with 

 such facts relating to structure and mechanism as may serve them as 

 aids in the investigation of those deeper problems which concern man's 

 relations to the past, the present, and the unknown future. 



*Virchow, "Alter iind ue'uer Yitalisinuis," Archiv fiir path. Anat. Ir56, vol. ix, p. 1. 

 See also RiudtleiscL, AerizVuhe Philosophie, Wiiizburg, 1888, pp. 10-13. 



H. Mis. 224 28 



