510 Meeting of the British Association. [Oct., 
resume its place in the air. Thus forces are active at the root, forces 
are active in the blade, the matter of the earth and the matter of the 
atmosphere are drawn towards the plant, and the plant augments 
in size. We have in succession the bud, the stalk, the ear, the full 
corn in the ear. For the forces here at play act in a cycle which 
is completed by the production of grains similar to that with which 
the process began. 
Now there is nothing in this process which necessarily eludes 
the power of mind as we know it. An intellect the same in kind 
as our own would, if only sufficiently expanded, be able to follow 
the whole process from beginning to end. No entirely new intel- 
lectual faculty would be needed for this purpose. The duly expanded 
mind would see in the process and its consummation an instance of 
the play of molecular force. It would see every molecule placed in 
its position by the specific attractions and repulsions exerted between 
it and other molecules. Nay, given the grain and its environment, 
an intellect the same in kind as our own, but sufficiently expanded, 
might trace out @ priori every step of the process, and by the appli- 
cation of mechanical principles would be able to demonstrate that 
the cycle of actions must end, as it is seen to end, in the reproduc- 
tion of forms like that with which the operation began. A similar 
necessity rules here to that which rules the planets in their circuits 
round the sun. 
In the eye of science the animal body is just as much the pro- 
duct of molecular force as the stalk and ear of corn, or as the crystal 
of salt or sugar. All that has been said regarding the plant may 
be restated with regard to the animal. Every particle that enters 
into the composition of a muscle, a nerve, or a bone, has been placed 
in its position by molecular force. And unless the existence of law 
in these matters be denied, and the element of caprice introduced, 
we must conclude that, given the relation of any molecule of the 
body to its environment, its position in the body might be predicted. 
Our difficulty is not with the quality of the problem, but with its 
compleaity ; and this difficulty might be met by the simple expan- 
sion of the faculties which man now possesses. Given this expansion, 
and given the necessary molecular data, and the chick might be 
deduced as rigorously and as logically from the egg, as the existence 
of Neptune was deduced from the disturbances of Uranus, or as 
conical refraction was deduced from the undulatory theory of light. 
Associated with this wonderful mechanism of the animal body, we 
have phenomena no less certain than those of physics, but between 
which and the mechanism we discern no necessary connexion. A 
man, for example, can say I feel, I think, I love; but how does 
consciousness infuse itself into the problem ? The human brain is 
said to be the organ of thought and feeling: when we are hurt, the 
brain feels it; when we ponder, it is the brain that thinks; when our 
