6 Edward Arnold & Co.'s Autumn Announcements. 



THE MECHANISM OF LIFE 



IN RELATION TO MODERN PHYSICAL THEORY. 

 By JAMES JOHNSTONE, D.Sc., 



PROFESSOR OF OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL. 



Demy 8vo. With numerous Illustrations. 153. net. 



In his Preface the author tells us that by " the Mechanism of 

 Life " he means " the results of a scientific analysis of the 

 activities of living animals," the results, in other words, of 

 modern physiological research, and a large part of this book is 

 occupied with an account of these results. But the book is a 

 great deal more than a physiological treatise ; the promise im- 

 plied in the reference to Modern Physical Theory is fully carried 

 out, and the object aimed at is " to give the reader an attitude in 

 his attempt to understand" the phenomena of Life in the most 

 extended sense, matters which carry us far beyond the boundaries 

 of physiology, and about which "no one can think without 

 becoming metaphysical, even if he does not know it." This 

 object is kept in view throughout, and imparts a certain liveliness 

 to the driest scientific details. It also determines the method 

 and order of exposition. 



We begin with the Nature of Animal Life, and are introduced 

 to the conceptions of Structure and Function and to the animal 

 as a machine in the narrower sense. This brings up the question, 

 " Whence does the machine get its driving power? " and so leads 

 to a discussion of the principles of energy and of the operation of 

 Plant and Animal Metabolism in the transformations of the 

 " working substance of life." Having thus got our machine and 

 the needful energy to keep it going we proceed to the co-ordination 

 of its various activities by the brain and the special nervous 

 mechanisms, and are thus prepared for an Analysis of Behaviour, 

 and an examination of the working of the nervous system as a 

 whole. 



Here the author, having completed his physiological survey, 

 passes in review the various Conceptions of Life which have 

 prevailed since Descartes, and the effects on these of the progress 

 of the sciences of physics and chemistry. The point has now 

 been reached where the metaphysical implications referred to in 

 the Preface force themselves on the attention. Some of these are 

 dealt with in two concluding chapters on " The Meaning of Per- 

 ception," and " The Nature of Life." 



It is interesting to note that the titles of the first and last chapters 

 are almost identical, while nothing could exceed the diversity of 



