LIFE ANDlITS PHENOMENA 6i 



It is difficult to conceive how alteration in structure- 

 buildinir under new conditions of life can be accounted 

 for without Directivity. 



B. Sanderson says : "In physiology the word Life is 

 understood to mean the chemical and physical activities 

 of the parts of which the organism consists ". 



Lankester says: "Zoology, the science which seeks 

 to arrange and discuss the phenomena of animal life and 

 form [?] as the outcome of the operation of the laws of 

 physics and chemistry ". 



Lastly, Huxley says : " It must not be supposed that 

 the differences between living and not-living matter are 

 such as to justify the assumption that the forces at work 

 in the one are different from those to be met with in the 

 other". 



All the fifteen authorities would reduce " vital phe- 

 nomena " to " chemical and physical forces ". 



No one to-day can possibly deny the fact that an 

 organism cannot be kept alive, whatever that word 

 means, without food ; and that by means of chemico- 

 physical processes going on within the body it breathes 

 and digests that food, which is converted into other sub- 

 stances which build up the structures of the body till it 

 be adult and then repairs the daily waste as well as 

 supplies the whole organism with energy till it dies. 



But there is one thing omitted, and that is Directivity, 

 which is obvious in every organism and every part of it. 

 To take an illustration, Prof. Lankester inserts the word 

 " form ". He will admit that the form of a hawk is very 

 different from that of a cat ? What causes the difference ? 

 If a young kitten and a young hawk be fed on precisely 

 the same food until they are adults, it is obvious that the 

 same food has built up two totally different " forms ". 



As the molecules of the food passed through several 



