answer would conclude that life derives from something 

 different, possibly from some sharply outlined individuality. 

 To the layman such explanations, which relate life either 

 to the long running oxidation process or to an electric 

 phenomenon, will cause great delight. This delight is fed 

 by the belief that such information brings understanding of 

 the essence of life, because such unique processes of 

 inorganic nature are considered accessible to complete 

 apprehension. By this means, it would be possible to 

 indicate accurately life's beginning and end. 



All such explanations Baer considered absolutely 

 unsatisfactory for the physiologist, because they are con- 

 cerned with only one particular phenomenon of the life 

 process. The physiologist should teach that life should 

 be explained not from something else, but from life itself. 

 Turning to the inorganic world, Baer noted that the time 

 will come when the physicists themselves should recognize 

 that on performing their experiments they remove individual 

 physical phenomena from the context of the general nature 

 of life. It is known that "not a single chemical process 

 takes place without galvanic activity, nor any galvanic 

 without magnetic activity, that light and heat are mutually 

 dependent; and therefore, it is to be hoped that, as until 

 now the physiologist compares the complex phenomena of 

 organic life to physical processes, some day he will compare 

 physical phenomena with those in the living organism and 

 will gain understanding from them" (II la 3). At that time, 

 Baer predicted that the complaint concerning unclear life 

 phenomena should end. It is customary to look at their 

 reciprocal relations and take them as they are, without 

 forced, frequently laughable explanations and references to 

 the unique phenomena in inorganic nature. 



Baer's statements reflect his ideology, which was not 

 free from the effect of the, to him modern, idealistic 

 philosophy. But his ideas reflected a protest against the 

 simplified mechanical understanding of processes, the 

 inorganic as well as the organic, and the spontaneous approach 

 to the idea about the general or universal connection of all 

 phenomena. 



The difficulties in investigating inorganic phenomena 

 are not so great, but understanding organic life is more 



366 



