378 



SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



consensus of many mechanical, physical, and chemical 

 processes in the living organism does exist, but it can 

 only be answered by attacking it from all sides and 

 reducing it to ever narrower issues. The stronghold in 

 which life is intrenched is to be conquered by surround- 

 ing it on all sides by the attacking forces of dynamics, 

 physics, and chemistry. It will have to yield some day, 

 though that day may be far off. The number of those 

 who treat biology in this way has increased very much 

 ever since Descartes, 1 and still more Lavoisier, applied 



1 The claims of Descartes to be 

 considered as one of the founders 

 of modern physiology are put for- 

 ward by Huxley in several of his 

 addresses, notably in that of ' On 

 Descartes' Discours,' &c., 1870 

 ('Lay Sermons,' &c., p. 279); and 

 in that on ' The Connection of the 

 Biological Sciences with Medicine,' 

 1881 ('Science and Culture,' p. 

 325). In the latter address he says : 

 "Now the essence of modern, as 

 contrasted with ancient, physio- 

 logical science, appeai-s to me to 

 lie in its antagonism to animistic 

 hypotheses and animistic phrase- 

 ology. It offers physical explana- 

 tions of vital phenomena, or frankly 

 confesses that it has none to offer. 

 And, so far as I know, the first 

 person who gave expression to this 

 modern view of physiology, who 

 was bold enough to enunciate the 

 proposition that vital phenomena, 

 like all the other phenomena of the 

 physical world, are, in ultimate 

 analysis, resolvable into matter and 

 motion, was Rene Descartes. . . . 

 And as the course of his specula- 

 tions led him to establish an 

 absolute distinction of nature be- 

 tween the material and the mental 

 worlds, he was logically compelled 

 to seek for the explanation of the 

 phenomena of the material world 



within itself" (p. 335). It is in- 

 teresting to contrast with this 

 announcement of the banishment 

 of the animistic aspect from modern 

 physiology what Prof. Bunge says 

 in the introductory chapter to his 

 well-known 'Text-book on Physio- 

 logical and Pathological Chemistry' 

 (Engl. transl. by Woolridge, 1890) : 

 " The mystery of life lies hidden in 

 activity. But the idea of action 

 has come to us, not as the result of 

 sensory perception, but from self- 

 ob-servation, from the observation 

 of the will as it occurs in our 

 consciousness, and as it manifests 

 itself to our internal sense" (p. 7). 

 "Physiological inquiry must com- 

 mence with the study of the most 

 complicated organism, that of man. 

 Apart from the requirements of 

 practical medicine, this is justified 

 by the following reason, which leads 

 us back to the starting-point of our 

 remarks : that in researches upon 

 the human organism we are not 

 limited to our physical senses, but 

 also possess the advantage afforded 

 by the ' internal sense ' or self- 

 observation" (p. 11). "The essence 

 of vitalism does not lie in being 

 content with a term and abandon- 

 ing reflection, but in adopting the 

 only right path of obtaining know- 

 ledge, which is possible, in starting 



