EMANCIPATION OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. 47 



of \V. Roux. Each biologist of any mark had his own, 

 and the list is endless. But here already this domain 

 of theoretical speculation is checked on various sides 

 by experiment J. Loeb, a pure physiologist, has 

 recently given his researches a direction in which 

 zoology believes may be found the explanation of the 

 mysterious part played by the male element in 

 fecundation. On the other hand, the first experi- 

 ment of the artificial division of the living cell 

 (merotomy)i with its light upon the part played by 

 the nucleus in the preservation and regeneration of 

 the living form, is also the work of a physiological 

 experimenter. It dates back to 1852, and is due to 

 Augustus Waller. This experiment was made on the 

 sensitive nervous cell of the spinal ganglions and on 

 the motor cell of the anterior corn u a of the spinal 

 cord. The effects were correctly interpreted twelve 

 or fifteen years later. All that zoologists have done 

 is to repeat, perhaps unconsciously, this celebrated 

 experiment and to confirm the result. 



Thus we see that the attack upon the vitalist 

 sanctuary has commenced. But it would be a grave 

 mistake to suppose that final cause and vital force are 

 on the point of being dislodged from their entrench- 

 ments. Philosophical speculation has an ample field 

 before it. Its frontiers may recede. For a long time 

 yet there will be room for a more or less modernized 

 vitalism. 



2. THE PHYSIOLOGICAL DOMAIN PROPERLY so 



CALLED. 



Vitalism is even found installed in the region of 

 physiology, although for the moment this science 

 limits its ambition to the consideration of the com- 



