VITALITY. II9 



In all living beings there exists matter in a peculiar 

 state which we call living. This living matter manifests 

 phenomena which are different from any phenomena proved 

 to be due to the operation of any known laws. It moves in 

 a manner which cannot be explained by physics. Changes 

 are effected in its composition which cannot be accounted 

 for, and various substances are formed by it which may 

 exhibit structure, properties, and a capacity for acting in a 

 manner which is peculiar to living beings, and cannot be 

 imitated artificially or satisfactorily explained. It takes 

 up non-living matter in solution, and communicates its 

 wonderful properties to it. Having increased to a certain 

 size, the mass of living matter divides into smaller portions, 

 every one of which possesses the same properties as the 

 the parent mass, and in equal degree. 



Scientific investigators have hitherto failed to discover 

 any laws by which these facts may be accounted for. But 

 rather than ignore or misrepresent them, or affirm anything 

 concerning them which we cannot prove, as some have 

 done, it seems to me preferable to resort provisionally to 

 hypothesis. In order to account for the facts, I conceive 

 that some directing agency of a kind peculiar to the living 

 world exists in association with every particle of living 

 matter, which, in some hitherto unexplained manner, affects 

 temporarily its elements, and determines the precise changes 

 which are to take place when the living matter again comes 

 under the influence of certain external conditions. 



In higher animals, besides giving rise to the phenomena 

 above referred to every instant during life in every part of 

 the organism, this supposed agency or power, acting under 



