THK BJSLFAS? ADDRESS. 470 



inorganic,* and afterward with profound insight to organic 

 nature. The vegetable world, though drawing all its 

 nutriment from invisible sources, was proved incompetent 

 to generate anew either matter or force. Its matter is for 

 the most part transmuted gas; its force transformed solar 

 force. The animal world was proved to be equally un- 

 creative, all its motive energies being referred to the com- 

 bustion of its food. The activity of each animal, as a 

 whole, was proved to be the transferred activity of its mole- 

 cules. The muscles were shown to be stores of mechanical 

 energy, potential until unlocked by the nerves, and then 

 resulting in muscular contractions. The speed at which 

 messages fly to and fro along the nerves was determined by 

 Helmholtz, and found to be, not, as had been previously 

 supposed, equal to that of light or electricity, but less than 

 the speed of sound less even than that of an eagle. 



This was the work of the physicist: then came the con- 

 quests of the comparative anatomist and physiologist, 

 revealing the structure of every animal, and the function 

 of every organ in the whole biological series, from the 

 lowest zoophyte up to man. The nervous system had been 

 made the object of profound and continued study, the 

 wonderful and, at bottom, entirely mysterious controlling 

 power which it exercises over the whole organism, physical 

 and mental, being recognized more and more. Thought 

 could not be kept back from a subject so profoundly 

 suggestive. Besides the physical life dealt with by Mr. 

 Darwin, there is a psychical life presenting similar 

 gradations, and asking equally for a solution. How are 

 the different grades and orders of Mind to be accounted 

 for? What is the principle of growth of that mysterious 

 power which on our planet culminates in Reason? These 

 are questions which, though not thrusting themselves so 

 forcibly upon the attention of the general public, had not 

 only occupied many reflecting minds, but had been formally 

 broached by one of them before the " Origin of Species " 

 appeared. 



With the mass of materials furnished by the physicist 

 and physiologist in his hands, Mr. Herbert Spencer, 

 twenty years ago, sought to graft upon this basis a system 



* Dr. Bertliold has shown that Leibnitz had sound views regarding 

 the conservation of energy in inorganic nature. 



