334 The Vital Phenomenon: Assimilation 



between the physico-chemical properties of the derived 

 substances created by the specific activity of each living 

 cell, and the properties of the cell nuclei which spring 

 directly from the special forces which constitute life. 

 The specific differences result from the very modality 

 of the cell life. Cell life is a special property of matter 

 which, like all its highest properties, undoubtedly con- 

 sists in a particular mode of movement. One can say 

 in some measure that the cell is a circuit of life. Further 

 vital force, like light or electricity, with which one can 

 compare it, not so much to show that it is very similar 

 to them as to facilitate the comprehension of it, presents 

 multiple varieties due to variations of wave lengths, of 

 their rythm, direction, or of any other element of this 

 movement which one could suppose or discover. These 

 variations are without doubt incomparably more numer- 

 ous than those of electricity, which are limited enough, 

 than those even of light, which are certainly infinitely 

 more numerous. And just as colors indicate the differ- 

 ences of the different kinds of light, so the different 

 physiological functions of species of cells indicate differ- 

 ent modalities of life." 252 



It is worth while to stop a moment here, to show 

 in this connection how readily biologists are inclined to 

 fall into two opposite exaggerations. 



Some deny flatly the possibility of ever arriving at 

 an understanding of the nature of life. But if we ask 

 ourselves in what this understanding of the nature of 

 life could consist, from the point of view of positive 

 philosophy, we have no difficulty in recognizing that 



2B2 Bard: La specificite cellulaire et ses principales consequences. 

 La semaine medicale. Paris, 10. March 1894. P. 116. 



