PHYSIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF VITAL FORCE. 771 



of their existence with the physical and chemical forces of the inor- 

 ganic world. 



Over one thousand organic compounds, which but a few years since 

 were supposed to be formed within the vegetable or animal body only 

 by the action of a " vital force," are now produced synthetically from 

 the elements which constitute them, and " there is every reason to ex- 

 pect," says the conservative but able author of " The New Chemistry," 

 Professor Cooke, " that in the no distant future the chemist will be able 

 to prepare, in his laboratory, both the material of which the cell is 

 fashioned and the various products with which it becomes filled during 

 life." 



It is true that the knowledge of man has not yet enabled him to 

 make a vegetable or an animal cell, but this is no evidence in favor of 

 a " vital force " per se, but an indication of ignorance relative to the 

 ultimate constitution of the cell. Indeed, pseudo-organic forms, which 

 resemble living cells, having heterogeneous contents, and true inclos- 

 ing membranes possessing dialyzing power, have already been reported 

 as produced by Monnier and Vogt. 



It is well, however, to remind ourselves of the fact that the " cell," 

 as commonly understood, embracing a cell-wall and an internal nucleus, 

 represents in itself an advanced condition of organization, and not, as 

 is so often inferred, the most primitive and simplest of life-forms. 

 ** Cell," in biology, " is a technical term used to denote a unit of living 

 tissue," and the fact that the chemist can not make it is not proof that 

 an independent life-principle resides in it, but is proof of ignorance of 

 its organic formation. 



If the fact of a " vital force," distinct from physical and chemical 

 forces, is to be established because of inability to make by synthesis a 

 living cell, then, in logical fairness, should this force, or some other 

 equally independent of physical and chemical laws, be declared to pre- 

 side over the genesis and potencies of those inorganic elements and 

 bodies which thus far have defied, not synthesis only, but analysis 

 also. 



In germinal matter is found the apparent seat of life, for this it is 

 that transforms pabulum to build the tissues at first, and in it lies the 

 potency of restoring to physical completeness portions of the body 

 that may be injured or diseased. The repair of living tissues after 

 mutilation is not, however, positive evidence of the existence of a 

 special principle, for the same action occurs in inorganic materials. 



Pasteur records the fact that " when a crystal is broken on any one 

 of its faces, and replaced in the fluid of crystallization, we remark that 

 while the crystal increases in all directions by the deposit of crystal- 

 line particles, a very decided simultaneous action takes place at the 

 broken or injured part, and this action suflices in a few hours, not 

 merely for the general, regular formation of increase over all parts of 

 the crystal, but also for the restoration of regularity in the injured 



