MA CHINES AND LAB OR A TORIES. 2 3 



phenomena to be observed in a living thing or piece of 

 living matter can be explained by known laws, but they do 

 not even attempt to give an account of one of the changes 

 characteristic of any living thing in nature. They cannot 

 imitate the phenomena occurring in the simplest form of 

 living matter. 



But am I not pressing my opposition too far ? How soon 

 may I not become a convert to the doctrines of the new philo- 

 sophy ? A very little more has to be established, and every 

 one will be convinced of the truth of my opponents' views 

 and the absurdity of my own belief in a power or force 

 different from ordinary force working in things living and 

 essential to the living state. There will then be no escape 

 for me. I may have to confess openly how vain I have 

 been, and how grievously I have erred, or be forcibly set 

 down as an obstinate, prejudiced person who had determined 

 not even to listen to evidence. In a few weeks or months 

 may we not be shown upon the screen the image of a little 

 living stuff compounded in the laboratory slowly moving 

 about in the medium from which it was derived, selecting 

 from its surroundings things adapted for its nutrition grow- 

 ing, dividing and subdividing a living, moving, artificial, 

 amoeba-like creature but constructed by the chemist direct 

 from gases of his own manufacture, the triumphant offspring 

 of the new philosophy evolved from the inorganic in the 

 depths of a retort, and capable, like any other machine, 

 of turning out multitudes of descendants per minute, though 

 conditioned into being without a progenitor ? 



We are familiar with the phrases "vital mechanics," 

 " vital physics," but no one has explained what is meant by 

 them. It is clear that if the phenomena comprised under 



