392 



MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT SCIENCE 



because it furnishes the foundation on which we build, and 

 it is so solid, complete and far-reaching that what has been 

 added since Darwin's death is very small by comparison 

 with his original structure. 



Lastly, we are told by the anonymous writer already 

 quoted that at the present time discussion is chiefly con- 

 centrated on the question as to whether life is dependent 

 only on the physical and chemical properties of the living 

 substance, protoplasm, or whether there is at work an 

 independent vital principle which sharply separates living 

 from non-living matter ! And the obvious and common- 

 place conclusion is announced that " the ultimate problems 

 of biology are as inscrutable as of old." All ultimate 

 problems are, I admit, inscrutable. It is, on the other 

 hand, the business, and has been the glory and triumph 

 of science, to examine and solve problems which are 

 scrutable ! It is certainly not the case that, at the present 

 time, discussion is concentrated on the question of the 

 existence of a vital principle. There is absolutely no dis- 

 cussion in progress on the subject. No one even knows 

 or attempts to state what is meant by " a vital principle." 

 It is a phrase which belongs to "the dead past," when 

 men of science had not discovered that you get no nearer 

 to understanding a difficult subject by inventing a name 

 to cover your ignorance. Thirty-five years ago the word 

 " vitality " was used as some few philosophising writers 

 are now using the term "vital principle." Huxley at that 

 time attacked the views of Dr. Lionel Beale, who called 

 in the aid of a mystical " principle," which he named 

 " vitality," in order to " account for " some of the remark- 

 able properties of protoplasm. As Huxley pointed out, 

 this supposed principle " accounted for " nothing, since it 

 was merely a name for the phenomena for which it was 

 supposed to account. Huxley pointed out that many 

 chemical compounds have remarkable properties as 



