THE SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT IN GERMANY. 



219 



It was a process of critical sifting similar to that which 

 Kant ^ applied to our general metaphysical ideas, which 

 in the middle of the century, through the writings of 

 Berzelius and Liebig, of Schwann and Schleiden, of Henle, 

 Lotze, and Du Bois - Eeymond, gradually dispelled the 

 older confused notions, and firmly established the mech- 

 anical view in the study of the phenomena of life. But 

 as we are forced to recognise the substance of much of 

 Kant's philosophical criticism in the lucid expositions 

 of Locke and Hume before him, so it has been pointed 

 out that the words of the eminent French physiologist, 

 Vicq-d'Azyr, contain the substance of the more modern 

 ideas on life." It required the co-operation of the exact 



40. 

 Mechanical 

 view in 

 biology. 



^ The great influence which be- 

 longs to Kant in the development 

 of modern German science has been 

 frequently dwelt on. In more re- 

 cent times some of the first repre- 

 sentatives of the medical and bio- 

 logical sciences have dealt with the 

 subject, and the opposition which 

 fifty years ago originated in the ex- 

 travagances of some of Kant's suc- 

 cessors, has given way to a renewed 

 recognition of the just claims of 

 Kant. We may refer to Du Bois- 

 Reymond, who, forgetting Lotze, 

 calls Kant the last philosopher who 

 took a part in the work of the 

 naturalist (' Reden,' vol. i. p. 33) ; 

 to Helmholtz, who in many passages 

 of his popular addresses refers to 

 the merits of Kant ('Vortriige und 

 Reden,' 1884, vol. i. pp. 44, 368 ; 

 ii. 58, 227, 234, 248, &c.) ; to 

 Haeser {'Geschichte der Medizin,' 

 vol. ii. p. 811). I will add to these 

 the opinion of so great an authority as 

 Prof. Billroth of Vienna, who, speak- 

 ing of the two modern schools of 

 medicine in Germany, says ( 'Lehren 



und Lernen der medicinischen Wis- 

 senschaften,' &c., p. 334): "How- 

 ever great the degree of independ- 

 ence may be which the two parallel 

 schools have attained, thej^ would 

 hardly have develojDcd so rapidly 

 without the powerful influence 

 which came from France and in a 

 lesser degree from England ; nor yet 

 without that of Immanuel Kant, 

 who in his ' Autophysiology of 

 Reason ' enlightened German minds 

 regarding their own selves, and 

 who with his lively imagination 

 fervently embi-aced natural science." 

 - The remarkable passage re- 

 ferred to is quoted by Du Bois- 

 Reymond ('Reden,' vol. ii. p. 27) : 

 " Quelqu' etonnantes qu'elles nous 

 paraissent, ces fonctions {viz., dans 

 les corps organises) ne sont-elles 

 pas des efi'ets physiques plus ou 

 moins composes, dont nous devons 

 examiner la nature par tous les 

 moyens que nous fournissent I'ob- 

 servation et I'experience, et non 

 leur supposer des principes sur 

 lesquels I'esprit se repose, et croit 



