REPAIRS AND REGENERATION 109 



Here then is a series of events which, if they 

 could be imagined to take place in connection with 

 a machine, could only be described in the way 

 attempted above by supposing that the machine 

 had resolved itself into its constituent metals and 

 from these metals rebuilt itself into a new machine. 



Assuredly these phenomena seem to point to 

 the existence of some special energy or force 

 intimately present throughout the entire living 

 organism, unifying its various parts, dominating 

 their activities, directing the evolution of the being 

 as a whole towards a definite prefixed end, which, 

 according to the old view was just the function of 

 the "Vital Principle". 1 



It is extremely difficult to imagine any theory / 

 which will account for the phenomena of regenera- ' 

 tion on purely chemico-physical lines, since they, , 

 like the phenomena which we studied in connection [ 

 with the developing ovum, so clearly point to the V 

 existence of a directive force in living matter which \ 

 has no parallel in non-living substances. 



Nothing proves this more clearly than the kind 

 of explanation which is attempted to be given by Attempted 

 those who deny the existence of the power in xpla ^ 



question. Amongst these the most prominent of they amount 

 recent writers is Professor Weismann. He narrates 



1 Life viewed as a principle was forma vel causa formalis ; 

 viewed as activity or operatic it was causa finalis of the Being. 



