Life and Energy 131 



cerning what he calls " vital force," a 

 term I do not remember to have ever used in 

 my life. He claims for Haeckel what is 

 represented by the following extracts from 

 his article (pp. 745, 6, 7) : 



" He does not say that life is c knocked out of 

 existence' when the material organism decays. 

 He says that the vital energy no longer exists as 

 such, but is resolved into the inorganic energies 

 associated with the gases and relics of the decay- 

 ing body. Thus the matter looks a little different 

 when Sir Oliver comes to Challenge him to say 

 by what right he gives that answer.' He gives it 

 on this plain right, that science always finds these 

 inorganic energies to reappear on the dissolution 

 of life, and has never in a single instance found 

 the slightest reason to suspect (if we make an 

 exception for the moment of psychical research) 

 that the vital force as such has continued to 



exist." 



The italics are mine. A little further on 

 he continues : 



"There is no serious scientific demur to 

 Haeckel's assumption of a monism of the physical 

 world, and his identification of vital force with 

 ordinary physical and chemical forces. 



" Sir Oliver seems to admit, indeed, that the 

 vital force is not in its nature distinct from 



