THE MECHANICAL CONCEPTION OP NATUKE. 227 



thought into exact quantitative equivalents of mechanical 

 force negatives its homology with merely physiological func- 

 tions.* Bain's rejoinder that we cannot reduce to such 

 equivalents a man's constitutional vigour fails, because this 

 vigour is the complex result of the working of all the organs 

 and tissues, and its component factors may be measurable. 

 Whilst the weight of evidence appears to negative the 

 purely physiological explanation of mind, we should not 

 only be tolerant of, but encourage investigations that look in 

 a different direction, as we are indebted to them for large 

 accessions to our knowledge of physiology. 



The so-called " organic compounds " were at one time sup- 

 posed to be obtainable only from living objects, but now 

 mau}^ of them can be artificially prepared, some to economic 

 profit. The study of " physiological psychology," that is, of 

 the functions of the brain from the ph^^siological side, has 

 already proved valuable. Ryder has shown that the calcifi- 

 cation of bone is comparable with the calcifications around 

 encysted trichiuas, and is more of a physical process (depend- 

 ing on the behaviour of calcareous salts in colloids), than 

 exclusively vital. Biitschli has found the movements of liv- 

 ing amoebai to be imitable by olive oil kept in moderately 

 warm water, from which it is inferred that the movements of 

 protoplasm are partly or exclusively physical. It is also now 

 known that the non-coagulation of the blood sucked in by a 

 leech is a physical phenomenon, which can be imitated by 

 keeping blood in vessels lined with oil. These attempts to 

 approach the problem of life and of mind from the chemico- 

 physical side mark the limits of the mechanical conception of 

 nature as actually established. There has long time existed 

 deep apprehension among Christians regarding the tendency 

 of this kind of science. What we have now to face is not a 

 remote risk, but a state of facts. If the mechanical theory 

 means ruin to faith, then the deluge is upon us, only a few 

 fragments (very important ones indeed) remaining to carry 

 us to land. Now it must be conceded that mechanism has 

 often been associated with atheistic materialism, and that 

 atheists have Avelcomed such mechanical explanations as 

 promised to explain the world without a God. The same 

 consideration has led Christians to fight shy of Astronomy, 

 Geology, Physiology, and recent advances in Biology, and to 

 discountenance investigations and theories which promised 



* Popular Science Monthly (New York), Sept., 1891. 



