244 VITALISM AND SCHOLASTICISM 



But if the facts in question cannot thus be 

 explained we are then driven to the conclusion 

 "Something that there is a 4i something over" in living 

 matter which does not exist in non-living. 



Some call this a " vital force," others, ap- 

 parently thinking that that term savours of 

 mediaevalism and supersitition, prefer to invent 

 some new name. 



It does not seem of any very great consequence 

 what we call this force, and a careful study of 

 the different definitions thereof leads one to the 

 conclusion that the thing concerning which all 

 the neo-vitalists are dealing in their works is the 

 same, though the names which are applied to it 

 may be quite different. 



(CC^) Moreover, if there is any meaning to be got 

 Neo- vital- out of words, the thing which the neo-vitalists 



mean is precisely the same thing as theTvitalists 

 vitalism 



or, at least, those of the scholastic wing 



, also meant and mean. There was perhaps 



/ may be still a school of vitajists who looked 



upon the vital principle or the human soul as 

 a little demi-god living in jhe body ? as Descartes 

 supposed inffie pineal body, but not of it, 

 though directing its actions and presiding over 

 all its functions. Vitalists of this kind would 

 also conceive of the animal soul or vital prin- 

 ciple, or whatever term they might use for it, 

 as being a thing apart from the body of the 



