26 VITALISM AND SCHOLASTICISM 



Le Dantec may be cited the statements of M. Le Dantec* 

 that " between life and death the difference 

 is of the same order as that which exists be- 

 tween a phenol and a sulphate, or between an 

 electrified body and a neutral body. In other 

 words, all phenomena which we can study 

 objectively in living beings can be analysed by 

 the methods of physics and chemistry " (p. 5). 

 And again (p. 250), speaking of the possibility 

 of the artificial fabrication of a living cell, he 

 says : " When the effective synthesis is ob- 

 tained, it will have no surprises in it and it 

 will be utterly useless. With the new know- 

 ledge acquired by science, the enlightened mind 

 no longer needs to see the fabrication of proto- 

 plasm in order to be convinced of the absence 

 of all essential difference and all absolute 

 discontinuity between living and not-living 

 matter." 



We can now see clearly the meaning of this 

 explanation of life. It teaches that all the 

 phenomena exhibited by living bodies, includ- 

 ing the poetry of Shakespeare and Wordsworth, 

 the profound reasonings of Aristotle or Sir Isaac 

 Newton, the generous instincts of a Fry or a 

 Howard, these and all minor manifestations of 

 life are explicable and may, therefore, some day 



* The Nature and Origin of Life, Hoclder & Stoughton, 

 1907. 



