76 VITALISM AND SCHOLASTICISM 



anything which is on the road thereto, so far as 

 they have as yet been investigated. It is true 

 that cyanogen was declared by Pfluger to be 

 half-alive, but the phrase was rhetorically used, 

 for what is really meant is not by any means 

 what might be taken to be meant by the phrase 

 in question. To explain the matter fully would 

 lead one too far into the paths of chemistry, but 

 this at least may be said that no chemist would 

 assert that cyanogen or any of its compounds 

 was in any way even on the road to being what 

 may be properly understood to be a living 

 organism even of the most lowly character. 

 Hertwig Hertwig * says that the work of the investi- 

 gator of the peculiar problems of life begins 

 where that of the chemist comes to an end. 

 " Over the growth of the chemical molecules 

 is placed the growth of the cell, and over this 

 again the growth of plants and animals with 

 their unions of millions and milliards of differ- 

 ent cells. Chemical knowledge as it exists at 

 present has nothing to do with that new world 

 of organised substances in which the manifesta- 

 tions of life are first made obvious." 



The living cell, as we have seen, is composed 

 of comparatively few elements. It derives its 

 food from all sorts of things and from this food 



* Allegemeine Biologic, 2te ed., 1906, s. 19. 



