402 



SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



Du Bois-Eeymond, the eminent physiologist of Berhn. 

 The former owed much of his scientific training to the 

 school of Ernst Heinrich Weber in Leipzig, the latter 

 to that of Johannes Mliller in Berlin. Both agreed 

 in denouncing the conception of a vital force — as it 

 was then called — as illogical, and moreover as scienti- 

 fically useless. But whilst Lotze distinctly stated that 

 his criticisms on this subject were only addressed to 

 scientific thinkers, and promised a further philosophical 



says, "correctly saw that the work 

 of Bichat had to be remodelled ou 

 the foundations laid by Schleiden 

 and Schwann," an undertaking in 

 which von KoUiker himself laboured 

 with the greatest success. But 

 above all must be mentioned the 

 appearance of Rud. Virchow's 

 'Cellular Pathology' (1858, Engl, 

 transl. by Chance, 1860), "in which 

 he himself explains that he does 

 not give a system but a general 

 biological principle,"' and in so 

 doing lays the foundation for the 

 entire exact treatment of patho- 

 logical cases. It is, however, well 

 to note that Yirchow does not 

 regard life as a purely mechanical 

 problem. The works of such 

 authorities as Henle and Virchow 

 give as much or as little jihilosophy 

 and discussion of general principles 

 as physiologists of the exact school 

 required for about thirty years. 

 Those masters, indeed, had them- 

 selves grappled with the philo- 

 sophical problem, and had arrived 

 at a formulation which sufficed to 

 lead research into fruitful paths 

 for a new generation of experts 

 who themselves were not philo- 

 sophically educated. The term 

 vital force disappeared, and in the 

 specialist medical literature of a 

 lengthy period even life itself was 

 hardly any longer discussed. Thus 

 a firm basis was laid on which 



mechanics, physics, and chemistry 

 could be usefully applied. A similar 

 silence as to general problems 

 reigns in the great school which 

 for two centuries built on the 

 principles laid down bj' Newton 

 in natural philosophy. Similarly 

 in chemistry, the foundations laid 

 by the atomic theory sufficed for 

 the greater portion of the century 

 following its enunciation. We 

 have seen in earlier chapters of 

 this work how, even in these 

 much more firmly established me- 

 chanical sciences, our century has 

 witnessed before its end discus- 

 sions again arising as to funda- 

 mental questions and leading prin- 

 ciples. A similar fate has come 

 over biological science, and with 

 it a renewed interest in the writ- 

 ings which stand at the entrance of 

 that epoch which was so rich in 

 the unravelling of definite and 

 special problems. Authorities like 

 Prof. 0. Hertwig warn us now of 

 that " other extreme which sees 

 in vital processes nothing but 

 chemico - physical and mechanical 

 problems, and thinks it finds the 

 true science of nature only in so 

 far as it is possible to reduce 

 phenomena to the motions of 

 attracting and repelling atoms, 

 and to submit them to calculation " 

 ('Die Lehre vom Organismus, ' an 

 Address, Jena, 1899, p. 8). 



