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The simple truth is that the essential phenomena of all 

 living beings cannot be explained without recourse to some 

 hypothesis of power totally different from any of the known 

 forms or modes of energy. Any one who allows his reason 

 to be influenced by the facts of nature as at present discovered 

 will feel obliged to admit the existence of vital power as dis- 

 tinct from, and capable of controlling,, the ordinary forces of 

 non-living matter. It has been conclusively shown that the 

 laws of vital force or power are essentially different from those 

 by which ordinary matter and its forces are governed. My own 

 views on this matter, put forward during the last twenty 

 years, have, of course, been ignored by materialistic prophets ; 

 but it is satisfactory to find that now and then the word vital 

 is actually used in speaking of phenomena, not to be explained 

 by physics and chemistry, by some scientific men who, never- 

 theless, support the doctrine that vital is, after all, but a 

 form, or mode of the ordinary physical action of non-living 

 matter. The fact is, those who act thus feel the weakness 

 of the cause they advocate, and try to hide their confusion 

 by vagueness and obscurity of expression. Within a very 

 few years, the hypothesis of molecular machinery will probably 

 be forgotten, and the operation of vital power, as distinct from 

 any ordinary force of matter, will be generally admitted and 

 taught. 



Purely vital phenomena are manifested by every form of 

 living matter from the highest to the lowest. They are tempo- 

 rarily resident in matter which has been derived from matter 

 in the same state, and when once vital phenomena have ceased 

 they cannot be caused to recur in the same particles. Although 

 it is frequently alleged that there is only a difference of degree 

 between the changes in living matter and those in non-living 

 matter, no one, as I have stated, has been able to support this 

 proposition by facts and arguments, or to adduce one single 

 example of matter in any state which illustrates the asserted 

 gradations of change from the living to non-living, or from the 

 latter condition to living. The more we learn concerning the 

 ordinary properties of matter the less probable does it appear 

 that these properties will ever be found adequate to account 

 for the facts of living. How can any reasonable person 

 expect that the disposition of the materials used in the con- 

 struction of any apparatus or organism will be adequately 

 accounted for by a demonstration of the properties of the 

 jnaterials themselves ? Material atoms in living things are 

 made to take up certain definite relations with respect to one 

 another which no experiment has shown to be due to, or to 

 depend upon, properties associated with the matter. Nor 



