THE "SOMETHING OVER" 141 



beings accidentally conjoined, but two constituent 

 factors or principles making up or coalescing 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 differentiating it from non-living 

 matter. 



It is .hard to see how this definition and this 

 way of looking at. living matter differs from Pro- 

 fessor Moore's definition of what he calls biotic 

 energy, namely "that form of energy peculiar to 

 living matter, and exhibited in those energy pheno- 

 mena which are confined to living matter and are 

 indeed its intrinsic property, by which it is differ- 

 entiated 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 : l Claude 



Bernard 



"Arrives au terme de nos Etudes, nous voyons 

 qu'elles nous imposent une conclusion tres g6n6rale, 

 fruit de 1'experience, c'est, a savoir, qu'entre les 

 deux coles qui font des ph6nom&nes vitaux quelque 

 chose absolument distincte des phnomnes physico- 

 chimiques ou quelque chose de tout a fait identique 

 & eux, il y a place pour une troisieme doctrine, 

 celle du vitalisme physique, qui tient compte de ce 

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



