88 VITALISM AND SCHOLASTICISM 



fern). He proceeds : " After this nothing re- 

 mains of the pretended spontaneity of move- 

 ment in living bodies. An observer conversant 

 with the results of all these experiments in 

 tactisms knows that the movements he observes 

 in living bodies through the microscope are due 

 to the colloid and chemical reactions of the 

 mobile beings and the medium." This will 

 seem to most readers of Le Dantec's book a 

 sufficiently wide deduction to have been drawn 

 from the comparatively few facts brought 

 forward. But let that pass. The quotations 

 just given make it abundantly clear that in 

 the author's opinion, and he may be taken as 

 tEe spokesman of a certain school of opinion, 

 there is no such thing as spontaneous or volun- 

 tary movement, but all movement is in the 

 nature of a chemical or physical or chemico- 

 physical reaction, and that, although we may 

 be wholly ignorant of how this takes place, we 

 may be quite sure, from what we know of the 

 behaviour of fern-antherozoids and the like, 

 that it does take place. With this summary 

 of the views under consideration we may now 

 return to the writer's first example. What 

 made the stone move ? It moved because some 

 one kicked it, i.e., its motion was passive. 

 What made the mouse move ? Let us suppose 

 that it was because it saw a cat. Then its 



