ON THE VITALISTIC VIEW OF NATURE. 399 



the laboratory, and how the living organism could 

 be analysed into a complex of separate apparatus or 

 machines, acting on intelligible mechanical and physical 

 principles was a radical change of the conception of 

 vital force and the vital principle. It ceased in the r a 20- 



Influence of 



opinion of many to be opposed to other non-living forces, ^erey 160 ' 

 as it was with Bichat ; according to others it was non- 

 existent, or at all events useless ; others again reduced 

 it to a purely regulative function, or even a mere 

 idea. A popular philosophy founded upon the unknown 

 principle of matter, and the equally unknown and 

 ven less clear principle of force, promulgated the 

 notion that science had succeeded in banishing all 

 spiritual entities, and was able to explain everything on 



purely mechanical principles. Vitalism and animism si- 

 Mechanism. 



were at an end ; there only remained mechanism and 

 materialism. It is well to note that none of the great 

 men to whom we are indebted for the real extension of 

 our knowledge of biological phernonena favoured or 

 embraced this view. . The reasons which kept them 

 from drawing what seemed to some the inevitable con- 

 sequences of their discoveries were manifold. 



As I stated before, there are two ways of approaching 

 the problems of nature, and two interests by which our 

 researches can be guided. The one is the abstract 

 mathematical method, which begins with the simplest 

 definable and measurable elementary processes, and tries 

 to imitate the complicated phenomena of nature by more 

 and more intricate combinations of these elementary pro- 

 cesses. The other is the more concrete method inspired 

 by practical interests. The mechanical, physical, and 



