THE ORIGIN OF LIFE. 2g 



organic with inorganic processes fail. There are 

 some conditions supplied by the living organism not 

 found in the inorganic world, and these conditions, 

 whatever they may be, direct the play of chemical 

 forces in the organism. 



The Vitalistic Theory. 



We have now finally reached the question at issue. 

 The vitalistic question to-day is not to decide how 

 many activities of organism can be explained by 

 chemical and physical laws, but to discover what are 

 the conditions which regulate these processes; to 

 decide why it is that a living body can induce 

 chemical changes which are impossible in the dead 

 body. 



One answer which has long been given to this 

 question is that the necessary condition is the pres- 

 ence of a " vital force " ; a force uncorrelated with 

 other forces, a distinct entity in itself. This force 

 is life. It is conceived as having been supplied to 

 the world at the beginning of life on the globe, and 

 as having been handed down from one generation 

 to another, or perhaps created anew at each birth. 

 Vitality is therefore considered as something apart 

 from the physical universe, but as capable of exert- 

 ing an influence upon matter, to direct the changes 

 taking place in it. According to this view, spon- 

 taneous generation would be an impossibility, for this 

 vital force, not being derivable from other forces, 

 could have its origin only from previously existing 

 vital force. This theory labors under the disadvan- 

 tage of being unable to say what is meant by 



