DISCUSSION 217 



perfect albumen, we should still not have living 

 albumen, nor a living protoplasm. Life would be 

 still wanting, and it is a scientific fact that this 

 missing residue, which we call life, cannot be 

 accounted for at all by means of chemistry or 

 physics. On this point I am in complete agreement 

 with Driesch, Reinke and other Neo-Vitalists, and 

 I regard as quite unjustifiable the statement that 

 Vitalism is nothing but a recourse to the unknown. 1 



This is by no means true. The biological fact of 

 life is as well known as the chemical and physical 

 processes of life; in fact, the latter are in many 

 respects far less known. But the only reasonable 

 account that we can give of the phenomena of life ( . 

 is this : There is an internal principle, which, in a 

 living substance, renders the atoms, with their 

 chemical and physical forces, capable of accomplish 

 ing something essentially higher than they can 

 accomplish in inorganic nature. Of course, the 

 chemical and physical forces are present no 

 one would deny that fact but hitherto no one 

 has discovered what directs them to the uniform 

 aim of life, and very probably no one ever will 

 discover it. In any case, if we desire to express 

 the scientific opinion of the present day, we must 

 acknowledge that there is abundant justification 

 for vitalism, and the Autonomy of the Processes of 

 Life, as Driesch has formulated it, is a true postulate 

 of biological science. 



1 Of. the assertions made by Plate and von Hansemann. 



