VITAL POWER NOT FORCE. 23 



matter exercising in man the highest and most 

 exalted function, which is destroyed if very 

 slight change occurs in the complex conditions 

 under which it has been ordained that it shall 

 live it seems extraordinary, considering the 

 very confident assertions that have been made 

 by those who advocate the physical doctrine of 

 life, that not one single case to justify the asser- 

 tion that vital actions are to be explained by 

 physics and chemistry should have been brought 

 forward. 



It is idle and misleading to call heat, and 

 light, and electricity, and motion " vital forces " 

 when they are manifested in living beings, and 

 physical forces when operating in the outside 

 world. The name given to a force ought not 

 to be changed according as the seat of its 

 operation varies. But by this proceeding the 

 advocates of the physical doctrine try to make 

 people think that the only forces operating in 

 living bodies are physical, and that these are 

 the only forces which their opponents refer to 

 when they speak of " vital power." The 

 physical philosophers ignore entirely, or deny 

 the phenomena which they cannot explain by 

 physics, and seek to hide truly vital phenomena 



