28 THE MECHANISTIC THEORY OF LIFE 



implies a definite breach in the fundamental 

 *9 v r 



law of conservation of energy. As already 



mentioned, every experimental investigation 

 has hitherto resulted in a verification of this 

 law in the case of physiological phenomena. 

 Any ' guidance ' of living organisms by the 

 vital principle would imply a creation or 

 destruction of energy; and this would be 

 the case even if the energy created in the 

 living substance were again destroyed before 

 it could escape to the outside, and so become 

 measurable. The reply that this creation or 

 destruction of energy may be extremely 

 small is not one which can satisfy a scientific 

 investigator. A principle which has been 

 verified again and again under all sorts of 

 conditions cannot be set aside except on 

 definite experimental evidence ; and this is 

 entirely lacking. 



^ Still another objection to vitalism depends 

 upon the fact that in order to 'guide' 

 effectually the excessively complex physical 

 and chemical processes occurring in living 

 material, and at many different parts of a 

 complex organism the vital principle would 

 apparently require to possess a superhuman 



