NO VIBRATION CAN EEPRESENT LIFE. 245 



to combustion manifesting itself in flame and in heat" (pp. 

 135-6).* 



And again, at page 119, consciousness is denned as "a suc- 

 cession of neural tremors variously combining into neural 

 groups." " Consciousness may be pictured as the mass of sta- 

 tionary waves formed out of the individual waves of neural 

 tremors" (p. 150). 



If he means the pattern of the waves on the water, 

 and not their motion, this would agree with my 

 analogy with fire ; but if the motion of the oscillation 

 is meant, I cannot admit the truth of the analogy, for 

 all tremors, however complicated, in which the mole- 

 cules return to the same state at their cessation, are 

 merely physical force, and, as such, have no relation to 

 life or consciousness, except that of a stimulus to excite 

 the metabolic changes in which life consists. 



* Lewes's " Problems of Life and Mind," i. 



