LIFE AND LIVING THINGS 31 



not essentially different from non-living, and the vitalists, 

 who hold that living things possess a vital principle which 

 makes them different from non-living. 



The mechanist believes it is possible that no living ma- 

 chine is beyond experimental analysis. He expects as his 

 knowledge grows broader to know more and more about the 

 mechanism of life, and even hopes, sometime, to be able to 

 make a living organism himself. From a scientific point 

 of view it is certainly not satisfying to believe that all 

 things were created as they are; that living things are alive 

 because they are alive, and that it is of no avail to try to 

 discover how they came to live and are living. It would be 

 equally unscientific to say that living things were not 

 created. There is no proof either way. Yet the mechanist 

 has much on his side. 



The first big victory for the mechanists was the dis- 

 covery that organic compounds can be made synthetically. 

 When Woeler in 1828 made urea in his laboratory, he 

 opened up a new field which has been very fruitful. It had 

 been believed that such substances could only be elabor- 

 ated within the bodies of living organisms. For example, 

 Liebig, who was a man of good standing scientifically, 

 manufactured a beef extract which he claimed was nourish- 

 ing because it possessed something "vital." One of his 

 opponents tested the extract, to see if such was the case. 

 He took a litter of kittens from their mother. Half of 

 them were fed nothing and the others received beef extract. 

 The starved lot lived longer than the others, showing that 

 the extract had little food value, but was stimulating. 

 When it became known that not only urea but many other 

 organic compounds could be made synthetically, people 

 began to doubt the " vital principle." 



There is no question that every organism is a machine. 

 It is composed of matter which may be separated into well- 

 known chemical elements and compounds. It consists 

 of levers, pulleys, and other things which work according 

 to the laws of mechanics. Many complicated activities 



