DEFECTS OF CURRENT PHYSIOLOGY 89 



enormously in reducing our observations to 

 order. 



When we turn from actual physiological 

 investigation to the current text-books on the 

 subject we are confronted by the fact that in 

 accordance with prevalent philosophical beliefs 

 among physiologists, these books are mainly 

 written from what is essentially a mechanistic 

 standpoint, and follow more or less closely 

 the general plan of Ludwig's famous text 

 book of sixty years ago. An account is 

 given of the physical structure and chemical 

 materials found in the body and its environ 

 ment, and this account is combined with an 

 analysis of how the whole works when the 

 various elements so distinguished are brought 

 into relation with one another during life. 



In this general plan there is absolutely no 

 place left for the living organism as such. We 

 find, moreover, that the various * mechanisms ' 

 to which the headings of the various chapters 

 correspond the mechanisms of neuro-mus- 

 cular activity, nutrition, secretion, absorption, 

 etc. exist, for both reader and author, only 

 as ideals on paper ; and at the end the reader 

 is perhaps inclined to .become a vitalist per- 



