VITAL POWER. 



37 



that primitive speck shall have ceased to live and have been 

 removed from the organism. Matter, with its forces, con- 

 tinually comes and goes, while power only remains unim- 

 paired and preserves its identity. Power has been handed 

 down has been transferred from old particles to new parti- 

 cles of matter j but the original matter nay, in the case of 

 some of the largest animals, hundreds weight of matter 

 must have come and gone, while the original power re- 

 mained. And yet we are to believe in matter only. 



Let not the reader suppose that these views of mine 

 concerning power are mere hypotheses which, like mul- 

 titudes of others, are continually presenting themselves to 

 the fancy, or that they are conjectures supported by certain 

 classes of facts, arbitrarily selected for that purpose, from 

 nature's inexhaustible storehouse, any opposing and incom- 

 patible facts being carefully excluded. The vital hypothesis 

 which I have ventured to advance is based upon facts of 

 observation. It was not until the facts had been demon- 

 strated that the hypothesis was framed. In every kind of 

 living matter I have shown that growth takes place from 

 centre to circumference. The new living particles appear in 

 the centre of living matter already existing, while those that 

 have lived for a time gradually make their way toward the 

 circumference as fresh new ones, continually originating in 

 the centre, take the place of those that have moved out- 

 wards. The power seems to remain central, while, as the 

 matter moves away towards the circumference, it loses in 

 power. Vital power works according to predetermined 

 order, and the results of its working are seen in different 

 consequences, at different periods of its action. But the 

 matter is always acted upon by the power in the same 



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