February 28, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



333 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



The Mechanistic Conception of Life. By 

 Professor Jacques Loeb. University of Chi- 

 cago Press. 1912. Pp. 232. 

 The title and the contents of this volume 

 convey very different impressions to the 

 reader. The title leads one to expect that in 

 the volume one will find a demonstration that 

 vital phenomena are mechanistic, or an expo- 

 sition of the organism as a mechanism, or 

 some discussion of the points at issue between 

 the mechanist in biology and his opponent, 

 the vitalist. But, on reading the book, this 

 expectation is not realized. Instead one finds, 

 as the preface states, that the volume consists 

 only of " essays — written on different occasions 

 mostly in response to requests for a popular 

 presentation of the results of the author's 

 investigations." Indeed, it is further quite 

 frankly acknowledged, that " the title of the 

 volume characterizes the general tendency of 

 these investigations as an attempt to analyze 

 life from a purely physical-chemical view- 

 point." The papers which make up the vol- 

 ume deal primarily and almost exclusively 

 with the following subjects : The Activation 

 of the Egg and Heredity, Tropisms, the Com- 

 parative Physiology of the Nervous System, 

 Pattern Adaptation in Fishes, Physiological 

 Morphology, Fertilization, Artificial Partheno- 

 genesis, The Prevention of the Death of the 

 Egg, and the Experimental Study of the In- 

 fluence of the Environment on Animals. 



Of the actual contents so far as they corre- 

 spond to what is indicated by the statements 

 of the preface a reviewer need make no criti- 

 cism. Suffice it to say in description of them, 

 that they consist for the most part of the 

 narration and interpretation of various ex- 

 periments in application of physical chem- 

 istry to certain isolated cases of vital phe- 

 nomena. In the employment of this method 

 Professor Loeb has been, as is well known, a 

 pioneer, and no one can gainsay the impor- 

 tance of his discoveries. They form one of 

 the most dramatic chapters in the history of 

 biology. Indeed one can but recognize the 

 brilliancy of Professor Loeb's hypotheses and 



experiments in attacking specific problems, 

 and be grateful for the stimulus which his 

 viewpoint and resulting methods have given 

 to biological research. In general, one can 

 only praise any new experimental method 

 which brings results, and one can not repudi- 

 ate by mere argumentation the facts which 

 such a method reveals. Thus it would be 

 only by repeating Professor Loeb's experi- 

 ments and finding that they do not give the 

 results which are claimed for them, or by 

 throwing doubt upon them by cognate experi- 

 ments, that one could put himself in a posi- 

 tion justifiably to dispute or criticize the ex- 

 perimental data which are presented in the 

 volume under review. Accordingly, since the 

 greater part of Professor Loeb's book deals 

 with specific methods and results of the kind 

 just indicated, it is left for a reviewer to make 

 only a few comments and general criticisms. 

 However, by way of fulfilling this function, it 

 would seem pertinent to raise the question, 

 especially a propos of the title of the book, 

 why Professor Loeb should have selected these 

 particular essays to place under the caption of 

 The Mechanistic Conception of Life, when he 

 has so many others that would have served the 

 purpose equally well. Further, it may be re- 

 marked concerning the papers selected and 

 now called " Essays," that there is not dis- 

 coverable, either in their arrangement or in 

 the data which they present, any system which 

 converges to that which both the title and cer- 

 tain emphasized statements of the volume 

 would indicate to be its chief purpose and 

 claim, namely, the demonstration of the appli- 

 cability, in some specific sense, of the mech- 

 anistic conception to all life and to all that 

 life manifests. One can make this criticism, 

 and yet admire the brilliancy and fruitfulness 

 of Professor Loeb's experiments. One can 

 indeed thus criticize, and yet be convinced 

 that in some sense the mechanistic conception 

 of life is the correct one, and certainly that it 

 is a very fruitful one in stimulating such 

 experiments as Professor Loeb's. But one can 

 hold this conviction, and still find good rea- 

 sons for maintaining that such experiments, 

 consisting for the most part of the application 



