1899] A VERBOSE VITALIST 243 
another world peopled by strange creatures called biophors and deter- 
minants, and worse. These things do not of course surprise or shock 
us, for we have realised the value of the statistical study of variations, 
the need of keeping on good terms with philosophy, and that Weis- 
mann’s symbols are “not mere fanciful images, but realities,’ as he 
says, “in the same sense in which chemical atoms and molecules are 
realities.” We are not surprised at these papers; what surprises us 
is that so few people seem to read them. A fragment of skin from a 
Patagonian cave seems to excite more interest than one of Karl 
Pearson’s mathematical contributions to the study of evolution; the 
problem of trituberculy is familiar, but Mr. Sandeman’s “ Problems of 
Biology ” remains unheeded; discussions of mimicry abound, but we 
might almost count on our fingers the English references to Weismann’s 
essay on Germinal Selection. Is it that we have forgotten our 
mathematics, is it that we have become after many lessons “ philo- 
sophie-scheu,” or is it that our love of the concrete is too strong ? 
There are these and other reasons on our side, but it must be allowed 
that the fault is not wholly ours. It is certain that one reason why 
contributions to the philosophy of biology are so frequently dis- 
regarded, is the authors low standard of lucidity. Enigmatical 
sentences, tense with meaning, may be gloated over if they are written 
by Browning, but not if they come from a biologist. Aphorisms 
which sound as if they meant much (as they probably do), which 
seem, however, only successful in keeping their meaning hidden, may 
be entertaining in a novel by Meredith, but they are only irritating in 
an essay on morphogenesis. Thus, through the carelessness of authors 
and the busy preoccupation of readers, we are left to continue our 
work but slightly influenced by the constantly growing mass of occult 
biological literature. We know of a prominent worker who bundled 
up one of these voluminous riddles, labelled it “ Davidson’s Secret,” 
and threw it on the top shelf; and we quite sympathise with any busy 
biologist who should similarly treat the little book before us. It is 
ealled “Die Lokalisation morphogenetischer Vorgiinge. Ein Beweis 
vitalistischen Geschehens ” (Engelmann: Leipzig, 1899, pp. 82, 3 figs.). 
It might be flippantly called “ The Mystery of Hans Driesch.” 
It was begun, we are told, at San Martino de Castrozza 9 ix. 98, 
finished at Naples 19 xi. 98; and it was originally published in the 
Archiv fiir Entwickelungsmechamk der Organismen. Its importance, we 
read, lies in the fact that it not merely suggests but proves the 
necessity of recognising a new and peculiar orderliness (Gesetzlichkeit) 
in certain vital phenomena. It contains a proof of vitalism. And by 
vitalism is here meant the recognition of the unique character of 
organisms, the recognition of what transcends the categories of 
mechanism,—“diejenige Auffassung, welche in Lebensgeschenissen 
Vorgiinge mit ihnen eigenthiimlicher Elementargesetzlichkeit erblickt.” 
The key-note is in the word “localisation.” It is especially the 
