THE BREATH OF LIFE 



world of inert matter as we know it, but in the or- 

 ganic world the same elements form thousands of 

 new combinations unknown to them before, and 

 thus give rise to the myriad forms of life that in- 

 habit the earth. 



The much-debated life question has lately found 

 an interesting exponent in Professor Benjamin 

 Moore, of the University of Liverpool. His volume 

 on the subject in the "Home University Library" is 

 very readable, and, in many respects, convincing. 

 At least, so far as it is the word of exact science on 

 the subject it is convincing; so far as it is specula- 

 tive, or philosophical, it is or is not convincing, ac- 

 cording to the type of mind of the reader. Professor 

 Moore is not a bald mechanist or materialist like 

 Professor Loeb, or Ernst Haeckel, nor is he an 

 idealist or spiritualist, like Henri Bergson or Sir 

 Oliver Lodge. He may be called a scientific vital- 

 ist. He keeps close to lines of scientific research as 

 these lines lead him through the maze of the primor- 

 dial elements of matter, from electron to atom, from 

 atom to molecule, from molecule to colloid, and so 

 up to the border of the living world. His analysis 

 of the processes of molecular physics as they appear 

 in the organism leads him to recognize and to name 

 a new force, or a new manifestation of force, which 

 he hesitates to call vital, because of the associations 

 of this term with a prescientific age, but which he 

 calls "biotic energy." 



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