PEOBABLE ACTION OF BIOPLASM OP NERVE. 207 



acts upon the material particles of which every mass of 

 bioplasm consists, and induces changes in them which 

 can neither be explained nor imitated. Every attempt 

 hitherto made to show relationship between inorganic 

 force and living force has absolutely failed. That 

 there is a connection is believed and has been asserted 

 over and over again, but there is not the shadow of 

 reason for accepting the dogma that has been pro- 

 mulgated. Men may be made to say that life is force, 

 but no one has produced the slightest evidence for 

 adopting such a belief. While, on the contrary, every 

 fact of life which we are able to investigate, leads 

 us to the conclusion that, whatever life may be, it 

 cannot be ordinary energy, or any form or mode, or 

 mood of ordinary energy of which physicists have as 

 yet any cognizance or conception. No form or mode 

 of energy is known to occasion phenomena at all 

 resembling those which are the consequence of the 

 influence of life or vital force upon matter. A re- 

 view of the general facts of living beings is not 

 favourable to the idea of the universality of physical 

 action, while even the most ardent physicists have 

 been forced to confess that they cannot explain 

 mental phenomena in terms known to physics. But 

 physicists are as much bound to confess that they 

 are equally unable to explain the phenomena charac- 

 teristic of any particle of living matter in nature. 



Now the bioplasm of certain parts of the nervous 

 system is influenced in a definite manner, so that 

 certain changes result in the nerve mechanism with 

 which it is closely related. 



No doubt it is easy to explain by physics and 

 chemistry the transmission of a current along the nerve 

 fibres in many cases, especially, if it be admitted, 

 and I am quite disposed to believe this to be the case, 

 that the nerve current is electricity. The little bio- 

 plasts are, we will suppose, the batteries where chemical 

 changes occur and electricity is generated. But then 



