the power which is not separated from it."^ Reviewing the 

 contents of Wolff's article, "About the special essential 

 force," Kirchhoff extracted from it the following conditions. 

 Organic life, according to Wolff, is situated under the 

 control of universal natural laws which do not know excep- 

 tions. The law of organic life is the effect of the power of 

 attraction and repulsion, which does not, however, correspond 

 identically to the manifestations of the inorganic world. The 

 organic power of attraction is the particular nourishing power 

 of living creatures which Wolff called the essential force or 

 power. In it, the existence of the organism is expressed; 

 it is inherent to each of its particles which is capable of 

 attracting some substances and repulsing others, as in the 

 magnet where each point acts in an attracting and repulsing 

 manner simultaneously. The nourishing of organisms is similar 

 to the development or growth of crystals, because in this 

 case only certain substances are attracted; however, there are 

 differences because the crystal acquires new material from 

 the surface while the organism swallows it internally. The 

 selective property of nourishing substances could be comparable 

 to the activities of the soul, but, it is impossible in any 

 case to mix it with the properties of the animal soul as 

 Stahl did. On stating these opinions, in a fairly simple 

 rewording of Wolff's own, expression, Kirchhoff exclaimed: 

 "How clearly without base are these views about nature...!" 3 

 Kirchhoff later developed his own view as follows: "There is 

 a solid line for the mechanical biology of our and all times: 

 the movement of material, by the eternal law of physics and 

 chemistry, promotes the circulation of substances through 

 air, water and earth and also through living bodies; hence 

 their birth, life and death represent a surrender to the 

 natural law of the link in this wonderful complex... Wolff 

 says that to accept Blumenbach's educational type of force 

 means to agree with his incapacity to relate life to its 

 reasons, i.e. to interpret in accordance with the laws of 

 nature. Whoever behaves like that tries to help himself by 

 a big voluminous word which gives a cheap explanation to all 



2. A. Kirchhoff, "C. F. Wolff: Sein Leben und seine Bedeutung 

 fiir die Lehre von der organischen Entwicklung , " JENAISCHE 

 ZEITSCHRIFT FUR MEDIZIN UND NATURWISSENSCHAFT, 

 Leipzig, 4 (1868), p. 214. 



3. Ibid ., p. 216. 



116 



