104 



VITALITY. 



properties are lost whenever living matter dies, and are 

 never regained by those same particles. The vital actions 

 of the highest and lowest known forms of living mat- 

 ter appear to be of the same essential nature, although 

 the results of vital actions upon the form, properties, and 

 composition of the material produced are very different 

 in different organisms. But between the vital actions of the 

 simplest and most degraded forms of living matter, and any 

 actions that are known to occur under the most complex 

 circumstances, in non-living matter, there appears to be no 

 analogy whatever. Instead of attributing the phenomena 

 peculiar to living beings to any force or power of a peculiar 

 or special kind, it is considered more in accordance with 

 the " tendencies " of scientific investigation in these days, 

 and much more philosophical to assert that the phenomena 

 which I have called vital are the consequences of antece- 

 dent physical phenomena. 



When one portion of a mass of living matter is seen to 

 move in advance of other portions it may be said that the 

 movement is due to some phenomenal alteration which 

 occurred just before. But what evidence have we that this 

 change, which cannot be rendered evident to our senses, 

 was really phenomenal '? This movement is one of the 

 essential attributes of living matter. We cannot conceive of 

 living matter without the capacity for such movement. The 

 growth of the forest could no more be accomplished with- 

 out this wonderful power of movement which overcomes 

 the attraction of gravitation, than the changes in form of 

 the simplest living particles, or the active movement of the 

 vibrio or the vibration of a cilium. The visible changes 



