no 



CHAPTER II. 



TRACES OF UNITY IN VITAL AND PHYSICAL 

 MOTION. 



ON several occasions during the last five-and-twenty 

 years I have attempted to show that a radical change 

 is necessary in the doctrine of vital motion that, in 

 fact, vital motion is to be regarded as a mode of 

 physical motion. The argument is too long and com- 

 plicated to allow of justice being done to it in the short 

 space at my disposal. Indeed, all that I can now do is 

 merely to refer to my last publication on the subject,* 

 for everything in the shape of demonstration, and to 

 reproduce, with a few omissions and additions, what is 

 there said by way of introduction, and to give a brief 

 resume of the argument to do as much as may be 

 necessary (and no more) to state the case, and to show 

 broadly how I have ventured to deal with it. 



I. 



More than five-and-twenty years ago my faith in all 

 that I had been taught to believe about vital motion 

 received a rude shock in this way. I happened to be 

 present at an experiment in which a rabbit was killed 

 by injecting a solution of strychnia under the skin ; I 

 watched the strong cramps produced by the poison, and 



* " Vital Motion as a Mode of Physical Motion." Post 8vo. Mac- 

 millan, 1876. 



