408 THE VITAL FORCE. 



NOTE. 



I HAVE noticed, in the Preface to the Second and Third Editions 

 (s. xiii. p. xii. English Trans.), the subject of the republication here 

 of the preceding pages, which were first printed in Schiller's Horen 

 (Jahrg. 1795, st. 5, s. 90-96). They contain the development of 

 a physiological idea clothed in a semi-mythical garb. In the Latin 

 " Aphorisms from the Chemical Physiology of Plants," appended to 

 my " Subterranean Flora/ 7 in 1793 I had defined the " vital force" 

 as " the unknown cause which prevents the elements from following 

 their original affinities." The first of my aphorisms were as follows : 

 "Rerum naturam si totam consideres, magnum atque durabile, quod 

 inter elementa intercedit, discrimen perspicies, quorum altera aflmita- 

 tum legibus obtemperantia, altera, vinculis solutis, varie juncta ap- 

 parent. Quod quidem discrimen in elementis ipsis eorumque indole 

 neutiquam positum, quum ex sola distributione singulorum petendum 

 esse videatur. Materiam segnem, brutam, inanimam earn vocamus, 

 cujus stamina secundum leges chymicse aflmitatis mixta sunt. Ani- 

 mata atque organica ea potissimun corpora appellamus, quae, licet in 

 novas mutari formas perpetuo tendant, vi interna quadam conti- 

 nentur, quominus priscam sibique insitam formam relinquant. 



"Vim internani, quaa chymicse aninitatis vincula resolvit, atque 

 obstat, quominus elementa corporum libere conjungantur, vitalem 

 vocamus. Itaque nullum certius mortis criterium putredine datur, 

 qua primse partes vel stamina reruin, antiquis juribus revocatis, 

 aflmitatum legibus parent. Corporum inanimorum nulla putredo 

 esse potest." (Yide Aphorism! ex doctrina Physiologise chemicse 

 Plantarum, in Humboldt, Flora Fribergensis subterranea, 1793, pp. 

 133-136.) 



I have placed in the mouth of Epicharmus the above propositions, 

 which were disapproved by the acute Vicq d'Azyr, in his Traite* 

 d' Anatomic et de Physiologic, t. i. p. 5, but are now entertained by 

 many distinguished persons among my friends. Reflection and con- 

 tinued study in the domains of physiology and chemistry have deeply 

 shaken my earlier belief in a peculiar so-called vital force. In 1797, 



