CHAPTER XV 



Neo-Vitalists and their Definitions Conclusion. 



PROFESOR WARD * very forcibly describes the 

 characteristics of living matter when he speaks 

 of its " tendency to disturb existing equilibria, 

 to reverse the dissipative processes which pre- 

 vail throughout the inanimate world, to store 

 and build up where they are ever scattering and 

 pulling down, the tendency^to conserve indivi- 

 dual existence against antagonistic forces, to 

 ^row and to progress, not inertly taking the 

 easier way but seemingly striving for the best, 

 retaining every vantage secured, and working 

 for new ones." 



In the preceding chapters an attempt has been 

 made to show that these and the other remark- 

 able characters of living matter cannot be ade- 

 quately explained in terms of chemistry and 

 physics, and that the view here upheld is that 

 of a large, an important, and, it may be added, 

 a <i increasing number of those who have made 

 a life-study of different branches of biology. 



* Op. cit. supra, i. 285. 

 243 



