22 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 470. 



have no place within the domain of natural 

 science. Natural mechanism and vitalism 

 are insufficiently supported by accumu- 

 lated evidence to he considered as well- 

 established scientific theories. 



VITALISM AS A WORKING HYPOTHESIS. 



But there is still another question. 

 There are already numerous well-estab,- 

 lished biological facts which can not be 

 explained for the present by physics and 

 chemistry, and we have no means of know- 

 ing whether they will ever be explained 

 that way— what are we to do with these 

 facts? Here is the answer: Vitalism as a 

 storage place is indispensable. "We should 

 continue to call these facts vital phe- 

 nomena until we discover a way to explain 

 them by laws governing the inanimate 

 bodies. But I shall still go further. I be- 

 lieve that vitalism as a working hypothesis 

 is of great advantage to the progress of 

 biology. The belief that only those biolog- 

 ical facts which can be reduced to physics 

 and chemistry can be considered as scien- 

 tifically understood, combined with the mis- 

 leading and harmful notion to elevate 

 physiology to an exact science, confined the 

 activity of this biologic division to some 

 favored domains— to its own detriment. 

 The sterility of some parts of physiology 

 is due to this inappropriate exclusiveness. 

 The relation of the internal secretion of 

 the thyroid to myxosdema and cretinism 

 and of the pancreas to diabetes, was dis- 

 covered without any reference to physics 

 and chemistry and was discovered by med- 

 ical men, and not by physiologists. The 

 important fact of the marvelous effect of 

 the extract of the suprarenal capsule upon 

 the circulation was discovered by physiol- 

 ogists without any reference to physics and 

 chemistry. Surely physiology ought to 

 search for the physics and chemistry of the 

 vital processes as much as possible, but it 

 ought to do more. It ought to unearth 



vital phenomena, study their characters by 

 methods peculiar to themselves, and estab- 

 lish their laws aside from any relation to 

 physics and chemistry of the inorganic 

 world. That this can be successfully done 

 is shown by the marvelous results obtained 

 in the discoveries and the precise studies of 

 toxines, antitoxines, h^molysines, cytoly- 

 sines and their like without much regard 

 for physics and chemistry. Especially 

 medical men have reason to ask for such 

 physiological studies. The experiments 

 which nature 1 is continually making upon 

 hiunan beings and which physicians are 

 called upon to interpret and to mend are 

 not confined to domains which are acces- 

 sible to interpretations by physics and 

 chemistry. And it is to such a far-seeing, 

 liberal, broad physiology that the science 

 and practice of medicine is looking for a 

 delivery from the firm grasp of the one- 

 sided teachings of pathological anatomy. 

 S. J. Melzee. 



8GIENTIFW BOOKS. 

 Mammalian Anatomy, with special reference 



to the Cat. By Alvin Davison, Ph.D. 



Philadelphia, P. Blakiston's Son & Co. 



1903. 8vo. Pp. xi + 250; 108 figs. 



Another book on the anatomy of the cat 

 can not but awaken suspicion as to its utility, 

 but an examination of this one shows the sus- 

 picion to be unfounded. It is designed to 

 fill the gap between the more detailed works 

 and those which are merely laboratory guides, 

 and to afford the student who can not pursue 

 a lengthy course of zoological study, a general 

 idea of the structure of a mammal and of the 

 principles of mammalian anatomy. 



In writing such a work the important point 

 is to determine what is to be omitted, and 

 Professor Davison has treated his subject with 

 an admirable perspective. Occasionally, as 

 in the description of the peritoneum, a some- 

 what fuller development of the subject would 

 have been advisable, and occasionally, also, a 

 brevity of statement tends to convey a some- 

 what erroneous impression. But such errors 



