2i6 Address to the British Association 



It also seems to me to be made evident, by the various 

 activities of each animal, which are, as a fact, grouped in one 

 in mutual interaction — an organism having been described 

 by Kant as a creature, the various parts of which are recipro- 

 cally ends and means. 



I think now I hear the exclamation — This is ' VitaUsm ! ' 

 while some of my hearers may deem these matters too specu- 

 lative for our Section. 



But consciously or unconsciously, general conceptions of 

 the kind exist in the minds of all biologists, and influence 

 them in various ways, and their consideration, therefore, can 

 hardly be out of place here ; while as to ' Vitalism,' I am con- 

 vinced I shall not be wasting your time in endeavouring to 

 remove a widespread misconception. 



The ' Vitalism ' which is so reasonably objected to is that 

 which supposes the existence in each living creature of some 

 separate entity inhabiting the body — an extra-organic force 

 within the hving creature, and acting by and through it, but 

 numerically distinct from it. But the view which I venture 

 to put before you as that which is to my judgment a reason- 

 able one, is that of a pecuhar form of force which is intra- 

 organic, so that it and the visible living body are one thing, 

 as the impress on stamped wax and ' the wax itself are one, 

 though we can ideally distinguish between the two. It is, in 

 fact, a mode of regarding living creatures with prime refer- 

 ence to their activities rather than to their material composi- 

 tion, and every creature can of course be regarded either 

 statically or dynamically. It is to regard any given animal 

 or plant, not as a piece of complex matter played upon by 

 physical forces, which are transformed by what they traverse, 

 but rather as a pecuHar immanent principle ^ or form of force 



^ This term has been used to denote that activity which, together with 

 material substance, constitutes a hving creature, because it calls up a less 

 sensuous, and therefore less misleading, phantasm than any other. The old 

 term "^vxh, or soul, has become associated with the idea of a substance nuraeri- 



