MARKS OF MIND IN NATURE. 311 



ment conscioiisuess; and do not the properties of the particles 

 of matter abide till the mature forms mysteriously undergo 

 the change we call death? The school of theorists referred 

 to here seems to have found an adjective which fits mto 

 their aspirations, and is believed to make sure that life shall 

 be held to be only a quality of matter. Thus we have " the 

 physical theory of life," "the physical basis of life," "the 

 physical doctrine of life," " the physical origin of life," " the 

 physical view of life," " the physical nature of life," &c. Is 

 not this " multiplying words without knowledge " ? Some 

 acquaintance with the literature in which these phrases 

 occur creates the impression that the term Vitalism has 

 been found a sort of compromise in recent biological dis- 

 cussions, as if it was a recognition of life apart altogether 

 from questions of origin or originator. Looking at this from 

 the historical point of view, one is struck with the changes of 

 aim on the part of recent enquirers. It is not so much 

 touching the nature and increase of elementary substances, 

 their laAvs of combination, their characteristic affinities, their 

 divisibility and the like, as it is to shed light on. and account 

 for, the alleged chance behaviour of molecules as the explana- 

 tion of the origin of life. Biology is made to stand aside and 

 stereo-cheniistry takes its place. 



Since shortly after the beginning of this century, when 

 Dalton's remarkable discovery astonished the world, the 

 " Atomic theory " has had much attention devoted to it by 

 such physicists as Faraday, Clerk Maxwell, Pasteur, and 

 Lord Kelvin. As the decades glided past from Dalton to 

 Kelvin, interest in the theory went on increasing. It came 

 to be regarded as now a kind of finger-post bearing the 

 Inscription " this way to the source of life — the spot where 

 the non-living passes into the living." But before the 

 terminus ad quern is reached, lively conversation by the way 

 leads to a good deal of discussion touching that of which 

 they are in search. " What are to be dealt with," some say, 

 •' are Atoms," others " Molecules," others " Germs," and yet 

 others " the matei-ial ultimate living element," — the mother of 

 the multitudinous life forms which have not yet been found ; 

 they have only been defined ! Each seeker seems to have 

 discovered what he was in search of; but that no tAvo of 

 them find the same life-starting point comes out in bold 

 relief when notes are compared, and an effort is made to 

 unite tlie seekers after truth by hastening to table a term 

 Avhich might satisfy all. The term referred to is " enantto- 



