210 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 34. 



imagination and created for himself what 

 is known as the ' working hypothesis.' It 

 must be confessed tliat for some investiga- 

 tors the ' hypothesis ' becomes so dear that 

 if the facts of nature do not conform to the 

 hypothesis, ' so much the worse for the 

 facts.' But for tlie truly scientific man, 

 the hypothesis is destined solely to enable 

 him to get the facts of nature in some defin- 

 ite order, an order which shall make ap- 

 parent their connection with the great or- 

 der and harmony which is believed to be 

 present in the universe. 



If the working hypothesis fails in any 

 essential particular he is ready to modify 

 or discard it. For the truly inspired inves- 

 tigator, one undoubted fact weighs more 

 in the balance than a thousand theories. 



At the very threshold of any working 

 hypothesis for the biologist, this question 

 as to the nature of the energy we call life 

 must be considered. The great problem 

 must receive some kind of a hypothetical 

 solution. What is its relation to the ener- 

 gies of light, heat, electricity, chemism and 

 the other forms discussed by the physicist? 

 Are its complex manifestations due only to 

 these or does it have a character and indi- 

 viduality of its own ? If we accept the 

 ordinarily received view of the evolution 

 of our solar system, the original fiery 

 nebula in which heat reigned supreme, 

 slowly dissipated part of its heat, and 

 hurled into space the planets, themselves 

 flaming vapors, only the protons of the 

 solid planets. As the heat became further 

 dissipated there appeared in the cooling 

 mass manifestations of chemical attrac- 

 tion, compounds at first gases, then liquids, 

 and finally, on the cooling planets, solids 

 appeared. Lastly, upon our own planet, 

 the earth, when the solid crust was formed 

 and the temperature had fallen below the 

 boiling point of water, the seas were 

 formed and then life appeared. Who 

 could see, in the incandescent nebula, the 



liquids and solids of our planet and the 

 play upon them of chemism, of light, heat, 

 electricity, cohesion, tension and the other 

 manifestations so familiar to all ? And yet, 

 who is there that for a moment believes 

 that aught of matter or enex'gy was created 

 in the different stages of the evolution ? 

 They appeared or were manifested just as 

 soon as the conditions made it possible. 

 So it seems to me that the energy called 

 Life manifested itself upon this planet when 

 the conditions made it possible, and it will 

 cease to manifest itself just as soon as the 

 conditions become sufficiently unfavorable. 

 It was the last of the forms of energy to 

 appear upon this planet, and it will be the 

 first to disappear. 



In brief, it seems to me that the present 

 state of physical and physiological knowl- 

 edge warrants the assumption, the working 

 hypothesis, that life is a form of energy dif- 

 ferent from those considered in the domain 

 of physics and chemistry. This form of en- 

 ergj^ is the last to appear upon our planet, 

 last because more conditions were necessary 

 for its manifestations. It, like the other 

 forms of energj% requires a material vehicle 

 through which to act, but the results pro- 

 duced by it are vastly more complex. Like 

 the other energies of nature it does not act 

 alone. It acts with the energies of the 

 physicist, but as the master ; and under its 

 influence the manifestations pass infinitely 

 beyond the point where for the ordinary 

 energies of nature it is written ' thus far 

 and no farther.' 



It can be stated without fear of refuta- 

 tion that every phj'siological investigation 

 shows with accumulating emphasis that the 

 manifestations of living matter are not ex- 

 plicable with only the forces of dead mat- 

 ter, and the more profound the knowledge 

 of the investigator the more certain is the 

 testimony that the hfe energy is not a mere 

 name. And strange to say, the physicist 

 and chemist are most emphatic in de- 



