8 WHAT IS LIFE 



In other words, all phenomena which we study 

 objectively in living beings can be analysed by the 

 methods of physics and chemistry " (p. 5). And 

 again (p. 250), speaking of the possibility of the 

 artificial fabrication of a living cell, he says : " When 

 the effective synthesis is obtained, it will have no 

 surprises in it and it will be utterly useless. 

 With the new knowledge acquired by science, the 

 enlightened mind no longer needs to see the fabrica- 

 tion of protoplasm in order to be convinced of the 

 absence of all essential difference and all absolute 

 discontinuity between living and not-living matter." 

 We can now see clearly the meaning of this 

 explanation of life. It teaches that all the pheno- 

 mena exhibited by living bodies, including the 

 poetry of Shakespeare and Wordsworth, the pro- 

 found reasonings of Aristotle or Sir Isaac Newton, 

 the generous instincts of a Fry or a Howard, these 

 and all minor manifestations of life are explicable 

 and may, therefore, some day be explained in terms 

 of chemical equations and physical experiments. 

 It seems a hard saying and one thing is clear, namely, 

 that if it is true, there is an end to biology as a 

 science, an end also to psychology, an end to 

 all branches of science dealing with living things, 

 since all these must resolve themselves into 

 branches of the two only sciences of chemistry and 

 physics. 



