94 Notices of Books. (January, 
If vitality be at all acknowedged it must logically and 
essentially follow that living matter of all kinds and at all periods 
differs altogether from non-living matter. 
‘The transcendant difference is not due tochemical composition 
or to physical constitution or property, but to the presence and 
activity of a power which cannot under any circumstances be 
developed from matter that has not been made to live by the 
influence of that which is already living.” 
We have, then, in all living beings two distinct sets of phe- 
nomena—vital and physico-chemical; and while the physical 
properties always remain, the vital may disappear, never to 
reappear. But can the living exist independently of the non- 
living ? Here we touch upon one of the most difficult and 
strained questions of the day—a question which has received 
considerable examination in the immediately preceding numbers 
of this journal. 
‘‘It must be acknowledged that we are not able to adduce 
scientific evidence in proof that the living can exist independently 
of the non-living, because the only evidence obtainable by us is 
obtained from and through the material. Such a conception, 
however, may present itself to the mind, and it seems not 
unreasonable to believe that vitality may after all belong to 
an order of activities or immaterial agents of which we can 
really learn nothing directly by the assistance of our senses. 
Nevertheless, from the effects of the supposed agency upon 
matter, we can conceive of it as an actual existing power; and 
by studying accurately the results of its working, why should we 
not succeed in drawing a correct conclusion concerning its 
nature and the mode of its action upon matter?” 
‘«‘ After having studied the phenomena of living matter for a 
length of time and with all the advantages I could obtain, 
the conviction has been forced upon my mind that vital pheno- 
mena must be referred to the influence of an agency distinct 
from the physical forces of nature. The hypothesis I have been 
led to adopt is this. I suppose that there is operating upon 
every particle of every kind of living matter, a forming, guiding, 
directing power or agency, which is constantly at work, being 
transmitted from atom to atom.” 
“Do not the words ‘physiology,’ ‘biology,’ ‘ pathology,’ 
‘health,’ and ‘disease,’ imply processes that are not simply 
physical,—imply, in fact, a psychical factor ? In spite of all that 
has been urged to the contrary, there is not one of the actions 
properly called physiological, biological, pathological, healthy, or 
diseased, that can be regarded as wholly physical, mechanical, or 
chemical in its nature. Thoughtful persons have long felt 
extremely dissatisfied with the material doctrines of life now so 
prevalent, and though doubtful concerning the precise terms in 
which the influence of some non-physical power ought to be 
