MECHANISTS AND VITALISTS 63 



In detail, therefore, the sphere of action of 

 the ' vital force ' was a dim and misty sphere 

 of unintelligibility a purely negative sphere. 

 So far as anything definite could be traced 

 on the confines of this sphere it was some 

 thing physical or chemical, and beyond this 

 was indefinite mist. Where and how the 

 ' vital force ' acted on the atoms or molecules, 

 or what exactly became of them, no one could 

 say ; but out of the mist they seemed to 

 appear again, once more in the form of atoms 

 and molecules obeying physical and chemical 

 laws, but ordered in such a specific and 

 unmistakable manner as to indicate that 

 within the sphere of indefinite mist some 

 mysterious factor was at work. As, however, 

 the only definite detail was physical and 

 chemical detail, the mechanists were left in 

 possession of all that could be positively 

 investigated in detail. 



The mechanists have contended that the 

 misty sphere is only the mist of our ignorance 

 of the physical and chemical conditions, and 

 that year by year this mist is being gradually 

 dispelled by the advance of physiological 

 investigation. We have seen already that 



