THE CELL A FORCE CONDITIONING MACHINE. 5I 



little, which we cannot make, and which differs from a 

 machine in every attribute belonging to things to which that 

 name has hitherto been applied. Have physicists or 

 chemists yet prepared any conditioning matter at all like 

 living matter ? Not one of the ideas which we attach to the 

 word machine is applicable to living matter, and I think those 

 who have used this word, in speaking of the actions of living 

 beings, will find it rather difficult to define what they mean. 

 Not content with so calling the body, they denominate 

 the " cell" a "force conditioning machine," and attribute its 

 actions to machinery, which it does not possess. Some 

 modern speculators while they have not shrunk from speak- 

 ing of actual living things as machines, have called lifeless 

 machines " creatures" In this way, as they desired, a 

 vague impression that there was no real distinction between 

 a living creature and a lifeless machine has been produced 

 upon the minds of people who like to believe what they are 

 told is really new science, and are too busy, or unable, or 

 indisposed to examine carefully the dicta they are requested 

 to accept upon faith. But the most serious confusion of 

 ideas has resulted, and it will I fear be a long time before the 

 general reader will be able to gain a clear notion of the real 

 facts and their bearing. Of late years some facts have been 

 misstated, the importance of others exaggerated or under- 

 valued, while the extreme confidence with which the most 

 astounding assertions have been pressed has been such as 

 to render the task of opponents invidious. Indeed it seems 

 to be considered by some that even the most glaring misre- 

 presentations on the part of high authorities ought not to be 

 exposed, or a word said that could possibly damage the 



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