NOVEMBEE 15, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



645 



mitted to admit the operation of a vital, 

 constructing, arranging, guiding and regu- 

 lating power working in everything that 

 has life. I have endeavored to show exactly 

 where this power operates and upon what, 

 and have drawn attention to the fact that 

 the living matter or ' bioplasm ' possesses 

 very similar powers in all living things, from 

 the lowest to the highest. For the most part 

 the plea has been in vain, and overwhelm- 

 ing authority has declared for the opposite 

 view, and that those who differ, being 

 weakest, are to go to the wall. 



This question of the nature of life forces 

 itself upon our consideration in all our 

 deeper medical and physiological inquiries 

 and in all attempts to decide upon the 

 foundations of natural knowledge. Not 

 only are intellect, thought and the count- 

 less workings of the mind inexplicable upon 

 physical doctrines, but the movements and 

 growth of the very simplest living forms are 

 due to far more than is comprised in purely 

 physical and chemical changes. Is not 

 life-power the real, dii-ecting, controlling, 

 regulating and selecting agency in every 

 form of the living ? How can we accept 

 the proposition that from non-living atoms 

 and their properties is somehow evolved a 

 power which determines the arrangement 

 of these very atoms, which places them in 

 already determined positions, that tears 

 them away from one another and then 

 brings them within the sphere of their in- 

 fluence so that new and totally different 

 substances result ? Could watches and en- 

 gines make themselves, and multiply, regu- 

 late and direct, set themselves in motion, 

 and stop when they willed to do so, some 

 comparison might be made between ma- 

 chines and living matter. I feel sure that 

 all intelligent persons will agree with me 

 in thinking that the time has arrived when 

 this matter should be thoroughly reconsid- 

 ered. The influence of vitality upon matter 

 as a guiding and directing agency — -as a 



power by which the elements of matter 

 may be torn away from one another, rear- 

 ranged and caused to recombine in a way un- 

 known to physics and chemistry — has yet 

 to be recognized, and, if possible, investi- 

 gated. That this power is transmitted from 

 living particles to lifeless ones, which then 

 live, is certain; equally certain is it that 

 all living matter is clear, transparent, struc- 

 tureless and as colorless as pure water. 

 These are the characters of the simple sub- 

 stance in which vital changes are effected 

 without machinery and without any appa- 

 ratus. This living matter or bioplasm is, I 

 believe, the foundation of all living nature, 

 the seat of all vital phenomena in health 

 and disease, and the only substance in na- 

 ture possessing powers correctly termed 

 vital. Is there not evidence that in every 

 kind of living matter the elements of the 

 substance that lives may be separated and 

 rearranged in an order determined before- 

 hand, and in such a manner that definite 

 compounds result and structures evidently 

 designed for definite purposes are formed 

 to do certain work ? Have any such phe- 

 nomena been explained by physics and 

 chemistry? Consider whether any machine 

 has been constructed that can perform 

 work and be kept for any length of time in 

 working order without the designing, regu- 

 lating, managing power of the living mind. 

 Where is the laboratory that performs 

 chemical operations without the chemist '? 

 And where is the matter that can be sub- 

 jected to analytical and synthetical opera- 

 tions without the intervention of some liv- 

 ing agency ? And yet it has been afi&rmed 

 again and again that the living cell is a life- 

 less laboratory, where work of the most 

 complex kind is carried out without any de- 

 signing, directing or controlling agency 

 whatever. It is often assumed that sub- 

 stances of chemical simplicity are more 

 easily changed in vital action than bodies 

 of great complexity of composition; but so 



