The third section of Diadkovskii's dissertation is 

 called "On the Powers that Form and Activate the Human 

 Body." Concluding the diversity of matter and its capability 

 of combining into different bodies, Diadkoyskii believed that 

 nature could undoubtedly create the human organism by the 

 same method as it did other bodies, by combination of materials 



In accordance with the level of materialism at that 

 time, Diadkovskii related all life manifestations, including 

 the development of the embryo, to chemical reactions, and he 

 considered that conception, growth, retrospective development, 

 and the final destruction of the organism correspond with the 

 different stages of chemical processes, whose character 

 changes at different stages of development. He illustrated 

 this idea with the following statements; 



We know that males and females join together and 

 regenerate, forming a body [namely that of the embryo) 

 with the capability of achieving entirely different 

 combinations than those they could achieve separately. 

 We can seek the reason for this change only in their 

 reciprocal affinity. We know that a child has 

 capabilities for combinations different from those of 

 youth, and the adult has the capability for combinations 

 different from those of old age. Nature itself prepares 

 and at once provides substances for the nourishment 

 of the body soon after conception, and after some months 

 other substances are provided. In the uterus there are 

 certain substances? outside there are others. 81 



At the end of the third section, when he had related all 

 the life-activities of the organism and most all the opinions 

 on this, he included some words about the spirit of man. 

 Diadkovskii gave up the useless struggle to combine material- 

 istic ideas with religious dogma. He concluded that "Because 

 its (the spirit's) activities do not relate to our subject, I 

 assume that it is not my problem to explain either that such 

 spirit, by some means, is combined with or acts on the body, 



81. Ibid ., p. 180. 

 198 



