ll6 LIFE. 



All this, which takes place in all living particles, seems 

 very different from anything going on in non-living matter. 



Hypothesis of Vital Force. It seems to me that the 

 facts cannot be accounted for except on the hypothesis 

 of the existence of some force or power which influences, 

 in a manner we do not yet understand, the ultimate 

 elements, or the compound molecules, and causes them 

 to take up particular relations to one another, so that 

 when they combine, compounds possessing special cha- 

 racters shall be formed. For, surely it cannot be 

 maintained that the atoms arrange themselves, and devise 

 what positions each is to take up, and it would be yet 

 more extravagant to attribute to ordinary force or energy, 

 atomic rule and directive agency. We might as well try to 

 make ourselves believe that the laboratory fire made and 

 lighted itself, that the chemical compounds put themselves 

 into the crucible, and the solutions betook themselves to 

 the beakers in the proper order, and in the exact propor- 

 tions required to form certain definite compounds. But 

 while all will agree that it is absurd to ignore the chemist in 

 the laboratory, many insist upon ignoring the presence of 

 anything representing the chemist in the living matter which 

 they call the "cell-laboratory." In the one case the chemist 

 works and guides, but in the other it is maintained, the life- 

 less molecules of matter are themselves the active agents in 

 developing vital phenomena. 



Some have taught that mind transcends life, and life 

 transcends chemistry, just as chemical affinity transcends 

 mechanics. But no one has proved, and no one can prove, 

 that mind and life are in* any way related to chemistry and 



