246 VITALISM AND SCHOLASTICISM 



drawn up with the purpose of making clear the 

 fact that in matter and life we have not two 

 complete beings accidentally conjoined, but two 

 constituent factors or principles making up or co- 

 alescing into one complete being of a definite 

 nature. Hence the scholastic would define the 

 vital principle as an intrinsic principle of the 

 living cell constituting it living and differentiat- 

 ing it from non-living matter. 



It is hard to see how this definition and this 

 way of looking at living matter differs from 

 Professor Moore's definition of what he calls 

 bio tic energy, namely, " that form of energy 

 peculiar to living matter, and exhibited in those 

 energy phenomena which are confined to living 

 matter and are indeed its intrinsic property, 

 by which it is differentiated and known to be 

 alive." 



The present writer confesses that to him at 



least the two definitions appear to be absolutely 



identical in essence and he thinks that the same 



might be said of Claude Bernard's statement : * 



Claude " Arrives au terme de nos etudes, nous voyons 



Bernard qu'elles nous imposent une conclusion tres 



generate, fruit de 1'experience, c'est, a savoir, 



qu'entre les deux ecoles qui font des pheno- 



menes vitaux quelque chose absolument dis- 



tincte des phenomenes physico-chimiques ou 



* Vide Hertwig, op. cit., s. 131. 



