72 THE NEW PHYSIOLOGY. 



but simply biology, that I am preaching. Vitalism is 

 a very roundabout and imperfect attempt to represent 

 the facts. Physiological study, and biological study 

 generally, seems to me to make it clear that throughout 

 all the detail of physiological " reaction " and anatomical 

 " structure " we can discern the maintenance of an articu- 

 lated or organised normal. This idea brings unity and 

 light into every corner of physiology. In 'other words, 

 it helps us within limits to predict, just as the ideas of 

 unalterable mass and energy help us within limits to 

 predict, or the ideas of time and space help us within 

 limits to predict. I claim nothing more for it, but also 

 nothing less. The idea of life is just the idea of life. 

 One cannot define it in terms of anything simpler, just 

 as one cannot define mass or energy in terms of anything 

 simpler. But this one can say — that each phenomenon 

 of life, whether manifested in " structure," or in " en- 

 vironment," or in " activity," is a function of its relation 

 to all the other phenomena, the relation being more 

 immediate to some, and less so to others. Life is a 

 whole which determines its parts. They exist only as 

 parts of the whole. 



At first sight it seems as if it must be very difficult 

 to make use of this conception as an instrument of 

 research : for evidently we cannot investigate the parts 

 without investigating the whole. The difficulty is only 

 apparent. The whole is there, however little we as yet 

 comprehend it. We can safely assume its presence and 

 proceed to discover its living details piece by piece, in 

 so doing adding to our knowledge of the whole. If, on 

 the other hand, we attempt to take the organism to 

 pieces, or separate it from its environment, either in 



