ON THE V1TALISTIC VIEW OF NATURE. 431 



of variation and development is more and more coming 

 to be recognised as an inevitable property of all growing 

 and multiplying living things. So far as the influence 

 on the environment, the medium in which it lives, is 

 concerned, we owe to the great French biologist, Claude 

 Bernard, the helpful conception of the inner medium, 1 as 



is based upon harmony, the latter 

 upon conflict. The former aspect 

 is more particularly emphasised by 

 the French school of Lamarck, de 

 Blainville, and Claude Bernard ; 

 the latter more by the English 

 school of Malthus and Darwin ; 

 each starting apparently without 

 any reference to the other. Claude 

 Bernard in particular says('Pheno- 

 nienes de la vie,' vol. i. p. 67) : " Pour 

 nous la vie requite d'une conflit, 

 d'une relation etroite et harmon- 

 ique entre les conditions exteYieures 

 et la constitution pre"-e"tablie de 

 1'organisme. Ce n'est point par 

 une lutte contre les conditions 

 cosmiques que 1'organisme se de"- 

 veloppe et se maintient ; c'est, 

 tout au contraire, par une adapta- 

 tion, uu accord avec celles-ci. . . . 

 L'etre vivant ne constitue pas une 

 exception a la grande harmonie 

 naturelle qui fait que les choses 

 s'adaptent les unes aux autres ; il 

 ne rompt aucuu accord ; il n'est en 

 contradiction ni en lutte avec les 

 forces cosmiques generates ; bien 

 loin de la, il fait partie du concert 

 universel des choses, et la vie de 

 1'animal, par exemple, n'est qu'un 

 fragment de la vie totale de 1'uni- 

 vers." 



1 Although the biology of Claude 

 Bernard does not contain the 

 principle of descent and evolution 

 which so powerfully influenced the 

 contemporary writings of English 

 and German naturalists, one is 

 nevertheless reminded of the ideas 

 of Lamarck in reading the second 



of his lectures on the ' Phenomena 

 of Life' (vol. i. pp. 65-124). 

 Lamarck had expressed the idea 

 that in the graduated scale of 

 living things we recognise au in- 

 creasing independence with regard 

 to the external environment. (See 

 supra, chap. vii. p. 315.) Claude 

 Bernard says (p. 67): " Le mode 

 des relations entre 1'etre vivant et 

 les conditions cosmiques ambiantes 

 nous permet de considerer trois 

 formes de la vie, suivant qu'elle est 

 dans une dependance tout a fait 

 etroite des conditions exterieures, 

 dans ude dependance moindre, ou 

 dans une inde"pendance relative. Ces 

 trois formes de la vie sont : 1, La 

 vie latente ; vie non manifested. 

 2, La vie oscillante ; vie a manifes- 

 tations variables et de'pendantes du 

 milieu exterieur. 3, La vie con- 

 stante ; vie a manifestations Hbres 

 et independantes du milieu ex- 

 tdrieur/' Examples of the "vie 

 latente " are to be found in the 

 vegetable and animal creation alike. 

 Grains of seed, desiccated animals, 

 germs, eggs, ferments, yeast, &c., 

 are examples. All vegetables belong 

 to the class of the vie oscillante, also 

 among animals all invertebrates, 

 and among the vertebrates those 

 with cold blood. These depend on 

 cosmic conditions, the cold of 

 winter, and the reviving heat of 

 summer, &c. The higher animals 

 with warm blood whose tempera- 

 ture is constant are not in the 

 same way subject to the influence 

 of the external medium. They 



