STIMULI ESSENTIAL TO VITAL ACTION. 201 



the cock and admits the steam into the cylinder. This neces- 

 sity for an initial impulse, or the removal of a hindrance to 

 action is of immense significance in a teleological point of view, 

 for without it no li ving creature above the very lowest order of 

 individuality could exist ; no function requiring the harmonious 

 working of different parts of an apparatus could be performed, 

 and the whole organism would rush to its destruction by the 

 simultaneous over-activity of all its parts. Hence, in the building 

 up of the higher orders of animals there is a gradual differentia- 

 tion of the living matter, so that each kind becomes susceptible 

 of full activity only under its proper stimulus. No doubt the 

 essentiality of the stimuli is often lost sight of because they 

 form part of other essential conditions of life, e.g., pabulum, 

 oxygen, &c. ; but when more closely looked into, the action as 

 stimuli will also be found. Even when no visible apparatus is 

 present, the necessity for stimuli is recognized by most physio- 

 logists. Of the movements of the amoeba and white blood 

 corpuscles Kiihne says they take place from stimuli as yet 

 unknown. Dr. Beale, however, still clings to his theory of a 

 hyper-physical cause or vital principle which can initiate these 

 and other vital movements. He is, however, now greatly em- 

 barrassed. Formerly he did not hesitate to say they were 

 directly the offspring of a hyper-physical vital power, but 

 having stated that he did not assert the creation of force by 

 living matter, he is now obliged to deal with the subject in a 

 more guarded manner, and it is not easy to say what he does 

 mean in his third edition of " Protoplasm," where he says that 

 the antecedent change that occurred just before the vital move- 

 ment cannot be proved to be phenomenal. While he says, " it 

 is scarcely incorrect to say that it moves of itself, because at 

 this time no one can adequately explain the cause of the move- 

 ment " (269). He will not now say anything more distinct than 

 that he attributes these movements to " a peculiar power of 

 movement or to vitality? but the tendency of the remarks at 

 p. 273 is that they are spontaneous, and depend on no physical 

 cause. This is, of course, tantamount to a creation of force. 

 One must be. however, far more surprised that Professor Bain 

 upholds the doctrine of spontaneity of vital actions in his 



