ON THE vitalistk; view of nature. 



401 



crusade was accoidingly started in Gerinany by philoso- 

 phers, as well as by naturalists and biologists, against the 

 vitalists — those who believed in a special principle of life ; 

 and an impression was createil in the minds of thinking 

 outsiders that a purely mechanical explanation of life and 

 mind was finally decided on, and within possible reach. 

 Among those who assisted in bringing about this im- 

 pression, I need only single out two names — those of ^yfn*^ond 

 Hermann Lotze,^ the philosopher of Gottingen, and of 



22. 

 Lotze and 

 Vu Bois- 



1 Tlie position wliich Lotze oc- 

 cupies in tiie history of the con- 

 ceptions of life or of vitalism is 

 peculiar. If we read works deal- 

 ing specially with the history of 

 medicine, such as those of Haeser 

 or Hirscli, we do not come across 

 the name of Lotze at all, and it is 

 only in quite recent times, fifty 

 years after the appearance of Lotze's 

 writings dealing with vitalism, that 

 experts in physiology have re- 

 verted to his discus.sion of the 

 subject. See notably the follow- 

 ing : \. Rauber, " Formbildung und 

 Formsttirung in der Entwickelung 

 von Wirbelthieren " (' Morphol. 

 Jahrbuch,' Band vi.), 1880. 2. 

 Wilhelm Roux, " Einleitung zu den 

 Beitriigen zur Entwickelungsme- 

 chanik des Embryo," 188f) (re- 

 printed in ' Gesammelte Abhand- 

 lungeu,' vol. ii. p. 11, Leipzig, 

 1895). 3. 0. Hertwig, 'Zeit und 

 Streitfragen zur Biologie' (Heft 2, 

 Jena, 1897), pp. 2.3-29. 4. Carl 

 Hauptmann, 'Die Metaphysik in 

 der modenien Physiologic ' (Jena, 

 1894), p. 3. These and many other 

 recent references go back to Lotze's 

 article, " Leben und Lebenskraft," 

 in Rud. Wagner's ' Handworterbuch 

 der I'hysiologie,' 1842 ; and to his 

 larger publications, 'Allgemeine 

 Pathologic undTherapie als median - 

 ische Naturwissenschaften ' (Leip- 

 zig, 1842), an<l 'Allgemeine Physi- 



VOL. II. 



olugie des Kbrperlichen Lebens ' 

 (Leipzig, 18G7). The reasons why 

 Lotze's expositions were so little 

 regarded at the time were prob- 

 ably twofold. He taught that 

 the phenomena of life consti- 

 tuted a mechanical problem. This 

 was enough to dismiss in the 

 eyes of many empirical naturalists 

 the further, but not easily com- 

 prehended, statement of Lotze that 

 life was not merely a mechanical 

 problem. The definition and solu- 

 tion of the second part of the 

 problem was much more difiicult, 

 and Lotze delayed his expositions 

 on this side of the question for 

 ten years, when he published his 

 ' Meclicinische Psychologic oder 

 Physiologic der Seele ' (18r>2), 

 which contained a metaphysical 

 introduction apparently little in 

 harmony with the supposed purely 

 mechanical or even materialistic 

 standpoint of his earlier writ- 

 ings. In the meantime several 

 important works had appeared 

 which carried out in wider or 

 narrower regions the purely me- 

 chanical or inductive and experi- 

 mental treatment, and quite revolu- 

 tionised physiological and medical 

 studies. I need only mention such 

 works as Jacob Henle's ' Allgemeine 

 Anatomic' (1840), and his ' Hand- 

 buch der rationellen Pathologic ' 

 (1846-53). Henle, as von Kulliker 



2 C 



