88 CRITICISM OF MECHANISTIC THEORY 



great progress has been made in resolving 

 physiology into * bio - physics ' and * bio 

 chemistry/ 



Now it does not follow at all that because 

 physiology makes use of physical and 

 chemical knowledge and methods it must be 

 nothing more than physics and chemistry. 

 All depends upon the nature of the facts 

 revealed by the use of these methods. We 

 might as well argue that because physicists 

 and chemists make use of their sense-organs 

 and brains their science must be a branch of 

 physiology. The real question concerns the 

 nature and general tendency of the con 

 clusions actually attained by physiologists, by 

 whatever legitimate means these conclusions 

 have been reached. 



In surveying the general trend of physio 

 logical progress it is somewhat difficult to 

 know where to begin. From the early modern 

 times we find the idea present that the 

 activity of some peculiar agency distin 

 guishes living from non-living things. At 

 the time of Descartes, for instance, it was 

 generally held that apart from the conscious 

 animal spirit or soul, a living body is domin- 



