ox THE VITALISTIC VIEW OF NATURE. 



403 



investigation of the question, J )ii Jluis-Reyniuiul ^ gave 

 the impression, in his earliest deliverance, that the 



' Du Bois-lleyiiiDiitl's jjosilion in 

 the vitiilistic controversy is inter- 

 esting and instructive, inasmuch 

 jis he considerably modified his 

 opinions in coui-se of time. His 

 first dehverance on the subject is 

 to Ije found in the preface to his 

 celebrated ' Untei'suchungen iiber 

 Thierische Elektrititiit ' (March 

 1848). This discussion of the 

 subject followed soon after the 

 deliverances of men like Bcr/.elius 

 (1839), Schwami (1839), Schleideu 

 (184'2), Lotze (1842), on the same 

 subject, which are stated to have 

 been " ineffectual. " After the 

 lapse of twenty -four years Du 

 Bois - Reymond approached the 

 subject again in his celebrated 

 address at the German Association 

 of Sciences at Leipzig, 1872, en- 

 titled " Ueber die Grenzen des 

 Naturerkeunens." This deliverance 

 created a great sensation : the 

 jiainjihlet ajjjieared in many 

 editions and translations, and 

 only in this country failed to 

 get adequately noticed. A further 

 explanation of the views ex- 

 ])Ounded in it was given by the 

 author (1880) in an oration at 

 the meeting held annually in 

 honour of Ijcibniz in the Berlin 

 Academy on the 8th of July. It 

 bears the characteri.stic title " Die 

 sieben Weltr;ithsel." These docu- 

 ments together contain the author's 

 " j)hilosophical creed," which ends 

 ill "Pyrrhonism," out of which 

 there seems no escape exce))t 

 through "Supernaturalism," which, 

 however, begins where science 

 ends. (See note 1 to the last- 

 mentioned address.) All three 

 documents are reprinted in the 

 two volumes of ' ]{eden ' (Leipsic, 

 1886-87), from which I quote. lu 

 the interval of a quarter of a cen- 

 tury which lay between the first and 



second deliverance great changes 

 had come ovei- scientific thought. 

 The mechanical view, which had 

 been jiut forward in an extreme 

 form in 1S48, when it was projihe- 

 sied that " phy.-iology, giving up its 

 particularistic interest, would dis- 

 appear in the great united estate 

 of natural pliilosophy, would be 

 entirely dissolved in organic 

 physics and chemistry " (vol. ii. p. 

 23), had had time and opportunity 

 to show its power and its limits. 

 It had gained through gr(!ater 

 facility of application (such as 

 Ludwig's automatic curve - plot- 

 ting), through the larger con- 

 cepti(Hi of " StofFwechsel " as 

 denoting " metabolism " of matter 

 and energy. The author himself 

 had introduced a new definition 

 of life as a '• dynamical equi- 

 libriuTU " in the place of older 

 descriptions (vol. ii. p. 25) ; and, 

 above all, Darwin had shown the 

 possibility of a mechanical exjilan- 

 ation of so-called "final causes" 

 in nature. The author himself 

 was one of that great school, 

 emanating from Johannes Midler, 

 but now represented by the still 

 greater Helmholtz, which had 

 pushed the mechanical or exact 

 treatment to its furthest limits, 

 to the analysis of the phenomena 

 of the nervous system in its high- 

 est activity, those of sensation 

 and perception. It is therefore 

 highly significant that, instead of 

 confirming the earlier dictum, that 

 the exact treatment would halt 

 only at the most advanced point — 

 viz., the manifestation of '"free 

 will,"' — the aulhoi- is now forced to 

 admit that not only is the " origin " 

 of all motion quite obscure, but 

 likewise the lowest forms of 

 animation or con.sciousness are 

 not to be exi)lained mechanically, 



