THE BREATH OF LIFE 



undoubtedly in that nature and disposition of the 

 biological molecules that Tyndall's whole "mystery 

 and miracle of vitality " is wrapped up. If we could 

 only grasp what it is that transforms the molecule 

 of dead matter into the living molecule! Pasteur 

 called it "dissymmetric force," which is only a new 

 name for the mystery. He believed there was an 

 "irrefragable physical barrier between organic and 

 inorganic nature" — that the molecules of an or- 

 ganism differed from those of a mineral, and for this 

 difference he found a name. 



in 



There seems to have been of late years a marked 

 reaction, even among men of science, from the 

 mechanistic conception of life as held by the band 

 of scientists to which I have referred. Something 

 like a new vitalism is making headway both on the 

 Continent and in Great Britain. Its exponents urge 

 that biological problems "defy any attempt at a 

 mechanical explanation." These men stand for the 

 idea "of the creative individuality of organisms" 

 and that the main factors in organic evolution can- 

 not be accounted for by the forces already operative 

 in the inorganic world. 



There is, of course, a mathematical chance that 

 in the endless changes and permutations of inert 

 matter the four principal elements that make up a 

 living body may fall or run together in just that 



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