ON THE VITALISTIC VIEW OF NATURE. 431 



of variation and development is more and more coming 

 to be recognised as an inevitable property of all growing 

 and multiplying living things. So far as the influence on 

 the environment, the medium in which it lives, is con- 

 cerned, we owe to the great French biologist, Claude 

 Bernard, the helpful conception of the inner medium, 1 as 



is based upon harmony, the latter 

 upon conflict. The former aspect 

 is more particularly emphasised by 

 the French school of Lamarck, de 

 Blainville, and Claude Bernard ; 

 the latter more by the English 

 school of Malthus and Darwin ; 

 each starting apparently without 

 any reference to the other. Claude 

 Bernard in particular says ('Phe'uo- 

 tnenes de la vie,' vol. i. p. 67) : " Pour 

 nous la vie resulte d'un conflit, 

 d'une relation e"troite et harmon- 

 ique entre les conditions exterieures 

 et la constitution pre - etablie de 

 1'organisme. Ce n'est point par 

 uue lutte contre les conditions 

 cosmiques que 1'organisme se de"- 

 veloppe et se maintieut ; c'est, 

 tout au contraire, par une adapta- 

 tion, un accord avec celles-ci. . . . 

 L'etre vivant ue coustitue pas une 

 exception a la grande harmonic 

 naturelle qui fait que les choses 

 s'adaptent les unes aux autres ; il 

 ne rompt aucun accord ; il n'est en 

 contradiction ui en lutte avec les 

 forces cosmiques ge'ne'rales ; bien 

 loin de la, il fait partie du concert 

 universel des choses, et la vie de 

 1'animal, par exemple, n'est qu'un 

 fragment de la vie totale de 1'uni- 

 vers." 



1 Although the biology of Claude 

 Bernard does not contain the 

 principle of descent and evolution 

 which so powerfully influenced the 

 contemporary writings of English 

 and German naturalists, one is 

 nevertheless reminded of the ideas 

 of Lamarck in reading the second 



of his lectures on the ' Phenomena 

 of Life' (vol. i. pp. 65-124). 

 Lamarck had expressed the idea 

 that in the graduated scale of 

 living things we recognise an in- 

 creasing independence with regard 

 to the external environment. (See 

 supra, chap. vii. p. 315.) Claude 

 Bernard says (p. 67) : " Le mode 

 des relations eiitre 1'etre vivant et 

 les conditions cosmiques ambiantes 

 nous permet de considerer trois 

 formes da la vie, suivant qu'elle est 

 dans une de"pendance tout a fait 

 dtroite des conditions exteYieures. 

 dans une ddpendauce moindre, ou 

 dans une indepeudance relative. Ces 

 trois formes de la vie sont : 1, La 

 vie latente ; vie non manifested. 

 2, La vie osciUante ; vie a manifes- 

 tations variables et dependantes du 

 milieu exteYieur. 3, La vie con- 

 stante ; vie a manifestations libres 

 et inde'peudantes du milieu ex- 

 terieur." Examples of the "vie 

 latente" are to be found in the 

 vegetable and animal creation alike. 

 Grains of seed, desiccated animals, 

 germs, eggs, ferments, yeast, &c., 

 are examples. All vegetables belong 

 to the class of the vie o&cillantc, also 

 among animals all invertebrates, 

 and among the vertebrates those 

 with cold blood. These depend on 

 cosmic conditions, the cold of 

 winter, and the reviving heat of 

 summer, &c. The higher animals 

 with warm blood whose tempera- 

 ture is constant are not in the 

 same way subject to the influence 

 of the external medium. They 



