MAUDSLEY ON HEREDITARY DESCENT. 87 



capacity of the human mind to understand the cause 

 of certain changes which result from the action of 

 bioplasmic matter or germinal points. Adhere un- 

 relentingly to clear ideas. If chemical combinations 

 cause the formation of living tissues, it is very sure 

 that something has caused the chemical combina- 

 lions. Have they caused themselves ? Face to face 

 with the facts of biology, dare you adopt the dicer's 

 theory of the universe ? 



Life or mechanism — which? is the question in 

 debate concerning living tissues. We have many 

 specious, glittering pleas made in support of the 

 mechanical theory of life. In reply, the opponents 

 of materialism bring into court the living tissues 

 themselves. They exhibit the results of the latest 

 exact research into the difference between the living 

 and the lifeless forms of matter. They spread out 

 in biological charts the resplendent certainties which 

 illustrate the laws of the growth of all living things 

 [referring to charts on the platform]. 



Aristotle defined life as " the cause of form in or- 

 ganisms." Herbert Spencer defines it as " the defi- 

 nite coinbination of heterogeneous changes, both 

 simultaneous and successive, in correspondence with 

 external co-existences and sequences." I prefer Aris- 

 totle's definition. It has been a part of the audacity 

 of this platform, to define life in connection with 

 physical organisms, as the power which co-ordinates the 

 movements of germinal matter. Permit me to recur 

 to that definition in replying to Maudsley's pretence, 

 and that of Spencer, and of the whole school of ma- 



