CHAPTER II. 



THE 'VITAL PRINCIPLE' NATURE OF LIFE. 



Artificial production of Organic compounds. Genesis of living Forms. 

 Influence of modern researches upon conception of Life. Theories 

 concerning Life. Views of Atomists. Pantheistic conception of 

 Anaxagoras. The ' Archseus ' of Paracelsus. ' Vitalistic' theories. 

 Difficulties of. Based on misconceptions. Illustrations. Genesis 

 of Living Things. Life a result of molecular organization. Defini- 

 tions of ' Life.' Why unsatisfactory. Correspondence between 

 Organisms and their Environment. Views of Coleridge. ' Life' an 

 abstract name for the 'qualities' of certain material aggregates. 

 Mere arbitrary nature of distinction into Living and not-living. 

 Gradual passage of the not-living into the Living. 



BUT whilst the labours of one set of enquirers have, 

 as we have seen, been directed towards the elu- 

 cidation of the real nature of the phenomena taking 

 place in living things, with the result of showing them 

 to be much less obscure than had been previously sup- 

 posed, those of another set have been concentrated upon 

 attempts to build up artificially in the chemical labo- 

 ratory some of those organic compounds which had 

 hitherto been regarded as the peculiar products of the 

 living organism. The labours of Wohler, Pelouze, 

 Kolbe, Wurtz, Berthelot, and other celebrated chemists 

 have been especially successful in this direction- and 



