VITALITY. 



actions, they have been deduced from facts of 

 observation. The theory has, as it were, forced 

 itself upon me in the course of my work. In 

 the spring of 1861 I had the honour of de- 

 livering, at the College of Physicians, a course 

 of lectures " On the Structure and Growth of 

 the Simple Tissues of the Body ; " during the 

 delivery of which, upwards of sixty micro- 

 scopical specimens were exhibited and des- 

 cribed. The conclusions I drew were based 

 upon the facts thus publicly demonstrated. My 

 lectures, with a description of the specimens, 

 were afterwards published and illustrated with 

 numerous drawings from the preparations. This 

 volume was afterwards translated into German 

 by my friend, Prof. Victor Carus, of Leipzig. 

 Most of the original preparations still remain 

 in good preservation, and many new ones have 

 been added, year after year. So far from my 

 conclusions having been weakened by the more 

 recent researches of other observers, they have 

 been confirmed and extended. 



The evidence in favour of vitality being an 

 agency distinct from mere force, — being the 

 power by which all living things are charac- 

 terized, and which absolutely separates them 



