CONCLUSIONS, 



235 



changes occurring in living beings are merely mechanical and 

 chemical changes, but who are obliged to confess themselves 

 unable to produce by any means at their disposal a particle 

 of fibrine, a piece of cartilage, or even a fragment of coral. 

 These philosophers avoid the difficulty as regards the bio- 

 plasm by ignoring its existence. They attribute to a " mole- 

 cular machinery," which the mind cannot conceive, and 

 which cannot be rendered evident to the senses, all those 

 wonderful phenomena which are really due to vital power.* 



* Professor Tyndall describes (" Proceedings of true Royal Society," 

 vol. xvii, No. 105) the changes resulting from the influence of light on 

 the vapour of an aqueous solution of hydriodic acid, and makes the 

 following most curious allusions and comparisons. He states that a 

 cloud was developed like an organism from a formless mass to a mar- 

 vellously complex structure ; speaks of spectral cones with filmy drapery 

 and exquisite vases with the faintest clouds, like spectral sheets of liquid, 

 falling over their edges ; clouds are said to be like roses, tulips, sun- 

 flowers, or bottles one within the other ; a cloud is described as being 

 like a fish, with eyes, gills, and feelers, and like a jelly fish, with the 

 internal economy of a highly complex organism, exhibiting the twoness 

 of the animal form ; as perfect as if it had been turned in a lathe ; and 

 likely to prove exceedingly valuable to pattern designers ! There is 

 more of the same sort of rhapsody, which may lead some people to 

 fancy that Dr. Tyndall has actually succeeded in making out of a gas 

 exquisite flowers, fishes, vases, and other things very like some living 

 things that may have existed, or may be about to exist in a spectral 

 condition, although not absolutely identical with any which can be 

 produced at this time. 



