BIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF HUMAN 

 PROBLEMS 



BOOK I. THE ANIMAL BODY AS A 



MECHANISM 



A " . 



CHAPTER I 

 ^3 &7B 



THE MECHANISTIC CONCEPTION 



As we learn more about the specific conditions that 

 attend life in the higher animals, there comes a grow- 

 ing conviction that the biological processes that hold 

 sway in our bodies and condition our minds must 

 have a controlling, though often veiled, influence on 

 the ordinary occurrences of life. Human problems 

 have often been scrutinized from the standpoint of 

 religion and metaphysics and sometimes from the 

 position of the artist, but aside from medical teaching 

 singularly little effort has been made to glean what 

 there is to be learned from the laws governing the 

 physical or body mechanisms in their relation to 

 men's acts. Perhaps the inherent difficulties in any 

 such attempt have acted as a deterrent to the wise, 

 since it needs no profound thought to realize that the 

 simplest of living phenomena are far beyond satis- 

 factory analysis by the human mind, however greatly 

 it may be aided by the helps with which science has 



