36 NATURAL, SCIENCE: JAN., 1893. 
This must suffice for a short account of the nature of Professor 
Bitschli’s investigations. I am glad to be able to say that my friend 
Mr. E. A. Minchin has arranged with the author and publisher for the 
production ofan English translation of this work. Until the appearance 
of this, everyone who can spare time to cope with an intricate and 
rather perplexing German style should go to the original. Vitalism, 
the empirical study of living organisms as living, may be the most 
presently fertile working hypothesis. But only those of little hope 
look for no final synthesis of the facts of Biology, Physics, and 
Chemistry, and even now they will have much ado when they try to 
discount Professor Biitschli’s brilliant work. 
P. CHALMERS MITCHELL. 
