64 CONVERSION OF FORCE. 



CONVERSION OF FORCE. CORRELATION. 



The conversion of Physical into Vital Forces. The opinion 

 has been entertained by some that what have been called 

 vital forces are only ordinary physical forces acting under 

 altered conditions. Other authorities have supposed that 

 the physical forces have been somehow changed or modified 

 by life. Professor Owen has lately avowed his belief in the 

 doctrine that the so-called vital forces are really ordinary 

 physical forces, although, unlike many advocates, he admits 

 that " on one or two points " proof is wanting. But Owen 

 goes much further than the most advanced microscopical 

 observers and scientific investigators. He maintains that 

 the formation of living beings out of inanimate matter, by 

 the conversion of physical aud chemical into vital modes of 

 force, is going on daily and hourly ! The evidence he has 

 adduced in favour of this strange view, it need scarcely be 

 said, is scanty, uncertain, and unconvincing; while a mass 

 of facts and arguments which have been adduced in favour 

 of the opposite conclusion, that every particle of living matter 

 comes from a pre-existing particle, has been unconsciously 

 neglected or purposely ignored. 



Vital Selection and Magnetic Attraction. It is very signifi- 

 cant that so great a master is unable to suggest a better 

 instance of the analogy which he affirms exists between 

 physical and vital actions than is afforded by magnetism. 

 He says that there is nothing peculiar to living things in 

 their power of selecting certain constituents, because a 

 magnet selects also. But let the reader consider how diffe- 

 rent is the process called selection in these two cases. A 

 magnet, says Owen, attracts towards it only certain kinds (a 



