Septembee 20, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



441 



affected if it could be shown that living 

 matter does not possess the thermal and 

 mechanical properties, to explain which 

 the atomic theory has been framed. This 

 is so notoriously not the case that there is 

 the gravest doubt whether life can in any 

 way interfere with the action within the or- 

 ganism of the laws of matter in bulk be- 

 longing to the domain of mechanics, phys- 

 ics, and chemistry. 



Probably the most cautious opinion that 

 could now be expressed on this question is 

 that, in spite of some outstanding difficul- 

 ties which have recently given rise to what 

 is called Neovitalism, there is no conclu- 

 sive evidence that living matter can sus- 

 pend or modify any of the natural laws 

 which would affect it if it were to cease 

 to live. It is possible that though sub- 

 ject to these laws the organism while liv- 

 ing may be able to employ, or even to direct, 

 their action within itself for its own benefit, 

 just as it unquestionably does make use of 

 the processes of external nature for its own 

 purposes ; but if this be so, the seat of the 

 controlling influence is so withdrawn from 

 view that on the one hand its very existence 

 may be denied, while, on the other hand. 

 Professor Haeckel, following Vogt, has re- 

 cently asserted that '' matter and ether arc 

 not dead, and only moved by extrinsic force ; 

 but they are endowed with sensation and 

 will ; they experience an inclination for 

 condensation, a dislike for strain ; they 

 strive after the one and struggle against 

 the other." ^ 



But neither unproved assertions of this 

 kind nor the more refined attempts that 

 have been made by others to bring the 

 phenomena of life and of dead matter 

 under a common formula touch the evi- 

 dence for the atomic theory. The question 

 as to whether matter consists of elements 

 capable of independent motion is prior to 



* ' Riddle of the Universe ' (English translation), 

 1900, p. 380. 



and independent of the further questions 

 as to what these elements are, and whether 

 they are alive or dead. 



The physicist, if he keeps to his business, 

 asserts, as the bases of the atomic theory, 

 nothing more than that he who declines to 

 admit that matter consists of separate mov- 

 ing parts must regard many of the simplest 

 phenomena as irreconcilable and unintel- 

 ligible, in spite of the fact that means of 

 reconciling them are known to everybody, 

 in spite of the fact that the reconciling 

 theory gives a general correlation of an 

 enormous number of phenomena in every 

 branch of science, and that the outstanding 

 difficulties are connected, not so much with 

 the fundamental hypotheses that matter is 

 composed of distinguishable entities which 

 are capable of separate motions as with 

 the much more difficult problem of what 

 these entities are. 



On these grounds the physicist may be- 

 lieve that, though he cannot handle or see 

 them, the atoms and molecules are as real 

 as the ice crystals in a cirrus cloud which 

 he cannot reach ; as real as the unseen 

 members of a meteoric swarm whose death- 

 glow is lost in the sunshine, or which sweep 

 past us, unentangled, in the night. 



If the confidence that his methods are 

 weapons with which he can fight his way 

 to the truth were taken from the scientific 

 explorer, the paralysis which overcomes 

 those who believe that they are engaged in 

 a hopeless task would fall upon him. 



Physiology has specially flourished since 

 physiologists have believed that it is possi- 

 ble to master the physics and chemistry of 

 the framework of living things, and since 

 they have abandoned the attitude of those 

 who placed in the foreground the doctrine 

 of the vital force. To supporters of that 

 doctrine the principle of life was not a hid- 

 den directing power which could perhaps 

 whisper an order that the flood-gates of 

 reservoirs of energy should now be opened 



