CHAPTER II 



THE DECADENCE AND REVIVAL OF VITALISM 

 Huxley Burdon Sanderson Le Dantec Haldane Moore 



THERE is, in any case, no doubt that with the 

 great outburst of scientific investigation and 

 scientific knowledge which took place in the 

 nineteenth century the vitalistic theory came 

 to have its strenuous opponents. There were 

 those who maintained that it was a mere piece 

 of mysticism, and even at the present day, as 

 we shall shortly see, there are many who would 

 as soon confess their belief in the existence of 

 a vital factor in living things as they would 

 admit the existence of an Almighty Creator of 

 all things. Both these ancient views would to 

 them seem to savour of superstition and to 

 belong to a dark age of science. Perhaps in 

 the beginning of the scientific outburst such 

 a point of view was comprehensible if not 

 legitimate. There were as there still are 

 an extraordinary number of scientific facts 

 lying around waiting to be picked up. The 

 very number, variety and importance of these 



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