98 INTRODUCTION TO SCIENCE 



and in studying them we have to do with behav- 

 iour quite different from the movements of lifeless 

 forms. Prof. Pearson continues: 



"Although we cannot definitely assert that life 

 is a mechanism, until we know more exactly what 

 we mean by the term mechanism as applied to 

 organic corpuscles, there still seems little doubt 

 that some of the generalizations of physics 

 notably the great principle of the conservation of 

 energy do describe at least part of our perceptual 

 experience of living organisms." 



Admitting this, and the fact that there are 

 physical and chemical processes in the living body 

 which receive physical and chemical formulation, 

 we do not regard these as distinctive of the living 

 creature. Many of them, such as digestion, may 

 occur outside the living body altogether, in a 

 test-tube for instance. In short, we do not find 

 that a knowledge of these isolated items helps us 

 to describe hi physical terms the life and behav- 

 iour, the development and evolution of living 

 creatures. 



According to Pearson, however, "a branch of 

 science is needed dealing with the application of 

 the laws of inorganic phenomena, or Physics, to 

 the development of organic forms. This branch 

 of science which endeavours to show that the 

 facts of Biology of Morphology, Embryology, and 

 Physiology constitute particular cases of general 



