8 THE MYSTERY OF LIFE. 



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from the non-living, is so strong that it seems to 

 me we can only escape from the conclusion if 

 we deny or ignore incontrovertible facts. 



The particular view adopted by me has 

 then resulted from facts of observation. It is 

 a conclusion which has forced itself upon my 

 mind after many years of careful work, — a con- 

 clusion from which I have tried to escape, but 

 have failed to do so. I have endeavoured to 

 account for the phenomena by other theories, 

 but have not been successful, nor have attempts 

 on the part of others been more fortunate. 

 The doctrine of vitality is one which I should 

 never have accepted if, by the views more 

 generally entertained and taught, a sufficient 

 explanation of the simplest phenomena of living 

 beings had been afforded ; if, for example, the 

 movements of the simplest forms of living 

 matter could have been accounted for, if the 

 changes which occurred during the develop- 

 ment of a cilium, during its period of vibratile 

 activity, and when it died, could have been ex- 

 plained — nay, if the mode of increase of a 

 blade of grass, or the sprouting of a micro- 

 scopic fungus had been shown to depend upon 

 physical and chemical changes only. 



