ON THE VITALISTIC VIEW OF NATURE. 



455 



called cells which, through growth and reproduction by 

 division and fusion, maintain life as a continuous unic^ue 

 phenomenon. 



Into this view, which under the special form of 

 pangenesis has not found much favour, hut wiiich, 

 nevertheless, in some form or other, forces itself more 

 and more on our attention, Professor Weismann has 

 imported a further distinctive feature, not prominently 

 brought out by Darwin, though it also dates farther 

 back ^ than the present generation. 



^ The history of tlie knowledge 

 and theory of sex and heredity has 

 been written in EngHsh by Profs. 

 Patrick (leddes and J. Arthur 

 Thomson, in a book entitled ' The 

 Evolution of Sex ' (1st ed. 1889) ; in 

 French by M. Yves Delage, in his 

 much-quoted work, ' La Structure 

 du Protoplasma et les Theories sur 

 rH(5redite et les grands problomes 

 de la Biologie' (1895). The latter 

 work contains elaborate criticisms, 

 and finally inclines towards a theory 

 of life termed in France " Organi- 

 cisme," the main idea of which is 

 the assumption of two distinctive 

 factors in all the phenomena of 

 living matter — viz., '"Organisation 

 and Environment." This view, 

 according to the author, has not 

 yet gained sufficient strength to 

 form a definite current of thought 

 like the three earlier views de- 

 fined by the terms " Animisme," 

 " Evolutionisme," " Micronicrisme." 

 The first of these centres in the idea 

 of vital force, the second iu the 

 older school of evolution ; the last 

 begins with Buffon, and comprises 

 tiie modern theory of Evolution with 

 Spencer, Darwin, Haeckel, Weis- 

 mann. Of the last M. Dclage 

 says : " Ce dernier est, pour le 

 moment, I'ouvrage le j)lus jiarfait 

 crec pour expliquer rHcrddit^ et 



r Evolution. Nous croj'ons avoir 



montre (ju'll est bati d'hypoth^ses 



fragiles, invraisemblables, et, tout 



en rendant justice au talent de 



son architecte, nous con.seillons de 



I'admirer de loin et de construire 



ailleurs" (p. 837). " Organicisme " 



is represented by W. Koux, Uriesch, 



and 0. Hertwig, and is historically 



traced back to Descartes (p. S'.jS), 



and to von Baer and Claude Bernard 



(p. 720). To the theories of the 



others, "les Organicistes opposent 



le concours d'une determinatinn 



mod(5r^(5 et des forces ambiantes 



toujours agissantes, toujours n^ces- 



saires, non comnie simple condition 



d'activite, mais comme element 



essentiel de la determination finale " 



(p. 720). As iu this account the 



names of Roux, Driesch, and 0. 



Hertwig are placed together, it is 



well to remark that since that time 



the two last-named authorities have 



in v.arious polemical publications 



signified the divergence of their 



fundamental conclusions from the 



later attitude which Prof. Roux 



has assumed. For those of my 



readers who desire to get some 



insight into the drift of this most 



recent and advanced controversy, 



in which questions of principle, of 



scientific and philosojihical method, 



I alternate with discussions of minute 



