August 23, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



211 



daring that life is an energy outside their 

 domain. 



The statements of a chemist, a physicist 

 and a biologist are added. From the char- 

 acter and attainments of these men, their 

 testimonj^, given after years of the most 

 earnest investigation and reflection, is 

 worthy of consideration. 



When Liebig was asked if he believed 

 that a leaf or a flower could be foi-med or 

 could grow by chemical forces, he answered: 

 " I would more readily believe that a book 

 on chemistry or on botany could grow out 

 of dead matter by chemical processes." 



" The influence of animal or vegetable 

 life on matter is infinitely beyond the range 

 of any scientific inquiry hitherto entered on. 

 Its power of directing the motions of mov- 

 ing particles, in the demonstrated daily 

 miracle of our human free will, and in the 

 growth of generation after generation of 

 plants from a single seed, are infinitelj^ dif- 

 ferent from any possible result of the for- 

 tuitous concourse of atoms; and the fortui- 

 tous concourse of atoms is the sole founda- 

 tion in philosophy on which can be founded 

 the doctrine that it is impossible to derive 

 mechanical effect from heat otherwise than 

 by taking heat from a body at a higher 

 temperature, converting at most a definite 

 proportion of it into mechanical effect and 

 giving out the whole residue to matter at a 

 lower temperature." Sir William Thomson 

 (Lord Kelvin). 



" The anagenetic(vital)energy ti'ansforms 

 the face of nature by its power of assimilat- 

 ing and recompounding inorganic matter, 

 and by its capacity for multiplying its indi- 

 viduals. In spite of the mechanical de- 

 structibility of its physical basis (proto- 

 plasm) and the ease with which its mech- 

 anisms are destroyed, it successfully resists, 

 controls and remodels the catagenetic (phy- 

 sical and chemical) energies for its pui'- 

 pose." Cope. 



What then are the manifestations of the 



life energy? And what are the processes 

 which are discernible ? All of us in what- 

 ever walk of life will recognize the saying 

 of Gould : " Now when one looks about 

 him the plainest, largest fact he sees is that 

 of the distinction between living and lifeless 

 things." 



As life goes on and works with power 

 where the unaided eye fails to detect it, the 

 microscope — marvelous product of the life 

 energy in the brain of man — shows some of 

 these hidden processes. It has done for 

 the infinitely little on the earth what the 

 telescope has done for the infinitely great 

 in the skj^. 



Let us commence with the little and the 

 simple. If a drop of water from an aqua- 

 rium, stream or pool is put under the micro- 

 scope manj' things appear. It is a little 

 world thatone looks into, and like thegreater 

 one that meets our eye on the streets, some 

 things seem alive and some lifeless. As we 

 look we shall pi'obably find, as in the great 

 world that the most showy is liable in the end 

 to be the least interesting. In the micro- 

 scopic world there will probably appear one 

 or more small rounded masses which are al- 

 most colorless. If one of these is watched, 

 lo, it moves, not by walking or swimming, 

 but by streaming itself in the direction. 

 First a slender or blunt knob appears, then 

 into it all of the rest of the mass moves, 

 and thus it has changed its position. If the 

 observation is continued, this living speck, 

 which is called an amoeba, will be seen to 

 approach some object and retreat; indeed, it 

 comports itself, as if sensitive, with likes 

 and dislikes. If any object suitable for 

 food is met in its wanderings the living- 

 substance flows around it, engulfs it and 

 dissolves the nutrient portions and turns 

 them into its own living substance ; the 

 lifeless has been rendered alive. If the eye 

 follows the speck of living matter, the mar- 

 vels do not cease. After it has grown to a 

 certain size, as if by an invisible string, it 



