218 BE ALE'S VITAL FORCE OR POWER. 



take his physiology from text-books, which echo the 

 voice of the party which may be in fashion for the day, 

 he will then see that no atomic machinery could pos- 

 sibly so condition the forces as to grow and act like 

 living matter, except an atomic combination, utterly 

 distinct from all ordinary chemical compounds, such as 

 that now called protoplasm. He will then understand 

 Beale's merits and position better, and, at the same 

 time, I trust Beale will be brought to see that his 

 "vital power or force," which is certainly not a force, 

 and which he himself denies to be an immaterial 

 essence or principle, superadded to protoplasm, is as 

 superfluous as it is unintelligible. 



Dr. Beale through all his numerous writings speaks 

 of life as a force or power, and in his third edition of 

 "Protoplasm," 1874, he thus states the question be- 

 tween the vitalists and non-vitalists : " Let me first 

 state broadly the two antagonistic and incompatible 

 doctrines concerning the nature of everything that is 

 alive. The one which is undoubtedly just now the 

 most popular, is, that living matter and non-living 

 matter alike consist of the ordinary matter and forces 

 of our earth, and that the living and the non-living 

 should be included in the same category. The other 

 is, that in things living, in addition to inorganic 

 matter and inorganic forces, is what may be termed 

 vital force or power, which, unlike any ordinary force, 

 is separable from the matter with which it is tem- 

 porarily associated, and therefore is in its nature 

 essentially different from every form, or mode, or 

 mood of ordinary inorganic force" (p. 17). -In other 

 places he terms it a "separable living force " and 



