190 Transactions of the Society. 



supply vrill grow more slowly than those nearest to it, but no 

 formative or constructive or synthetic or analytic influence is 

 exerted by the nutrient fluid upon the living matter, nor by the 

 several elementary parts upon one another. Each is under the in- 

 fluence of the vital power associated with the matter of which it in 

 part consists ; and whether each can exist independently if sepa- 

 rated from its neighbours, or dies soon after it is detached, depends 

 not upon any influence exerted upon it by these neighbours, but 

 simply upon the inherent capabilities of its own vital power, trans- 

 mitted to it from the living matter which existed before it, and of 

 which it once formed a part. 



Nevertheless, each individual elementary part, say, of a leaf, or 

 other organ or tissue, must not in any case be regarded as an 

 individual, independent, or self-dependent organism, for it con- 

 stitutes but a part of a highly complex whole which has been 

 gradually formed in accordance with a definite structural plan and 

 arrangement, foreseen and prepared for as it were from the very 

 first. 



It is only by attributing the observed phenomena to the 

 operation of a special force or power, having no analogy whatever 

 with any known inorganic forces or powers, that a reasonable 

 explanation of the facts can be framed. The phenomena which 

 have been referred to cannot correctly be compared to any processes 

 or actions which occur independently of life, neither can any true 

 analogy be pointed out between these and any physical or chemical 

 changes or actions of which we have at this time any knowledge or 

 experience. That the formation of all tissues and organs is 

 governed by " law " is no doubt true, but the " law " is unknown, 

 and whatever may be its terms, the mode of its operation upon 

 matter is as different from that of any laws that are known to 

 operate in the non-living, as are the known and observed facts of 

 life from those of the inorganic matter of the world. 



Now as regards the nature of the actual phenomena of living 

 matter which are at present beyond the range of observation, at 

 least two diametrically opposite ideas are entertained. 



1. There is the commonplace notion that structure exists 

 which will account for the actions which take place, but that 

 the details of this supposed structure are too minute or too delicate 

 to be demonstrated by any magnifying powers which have yet 

 been constructed. For this idea there is no sufficient justification. 

 It is one of those assumptions in elaborating which the modern 

 materialist is so ingenious. In this way he struggles, and with 

 some success, to postpone for a time the inevitable fall of the 

 system he has endeavoured to make popular in spite of the over- 

 whelming evidence of facts against it. Here I must remark that 

 the word " structure " as employed by physicists is used in a sense 



