228 VITALITY COINCIDENT WITH ORGANISM. 



on this point are simply variations of one single argu- 

 ment, viz., the power of self-renewal from heterogeneous 

 material and of germinal development, are so contrary 

 to all the ordinary chemical powers of matter, that it 

 is impossible to conceive that any possible complexity 

 of molecular constitution, or state of affinity such as 

 here called metabolic, could produce such effects with- 

 out the addition of a superadded immaterial entity. 

 It would be easy to quote pages in support of the 

 statement that this is his position, but it would be 

 superfluous. The question is not susceptible of proof 

 by argument, and the material theory rests simply on 

 the fact that vitality is never found without proto- 

 plasm, and the latter never exists in its integrity 

 without vitality, and yields nothing but ordinary 

 matter on its destruction. If you assume a spiritual 

 principle in addition, whose existence is beyond proof 

 to the senses, you are bound to show why the same 

 should not be assumed as the cause of the special 

 qualities of ordinary chemical compounds. The differ- 

 ence between Fletcher and Beale is entirely on a 

 hypothetical point, which can never be brought to any 

 issue or submitted to the test of experiment, whereas 

 on all practical subjects they are agreed both vitalists 

 in the sense that true living matter is a substance 

 existing in a state quite different from that of ordinary 

 chemical combination, reacting with ordinary matter 

 and force in a way entirely sui generis and incapable 

 of entering into any chemical combination without 

 destruction. The summary of the difference between 

 Fletcher and the physiological materialists on the one 

 hand, and Beale on the other, is simply that the one 



