was called the vital power. All different activities must 

 be attributed to it; it must not only expediently build 

 the body, but also must prevent the disturbance of its 

 building by disease or injury; it must select from the 

 substances of the surrounding world those which are neces- 

 sary for building up the body and supporting life. Thus, 

 nothing such as the activity of the mind was attributed 

 to it, because it must act in accordance with purpose. 

 Later this idea contrasted with another idea widely dis- 

 tributed in the nineteenth century. This latter stated 

 that the vital power is only a result of fantasy, invented 

 to cover ignorance. The vital process is a physico- 

 chemical process so complicated that, after a long time, 

 we still cannot break it down into its separate components; 

 as a whole it exists by physico-chemical laws, i.e. it 

 arises by strict necessity. The most diligent supporters 

 of this idea added that about the purpose and trend of 

 vital phenomena there must not be any speech. "36 Concerning 

 the idea of the vital power, Baer absolutely agreed with 

 the assertion that it must be regarded as an attempt to 

 obscure an inability to solve a problem. 



A power to which it is impossible to add 

 measures, a power which strives for the final 

 end which is a result of fantasy of a production 

 of ideas .... The organism, undoubtedly, is 

 considered a mechanical apparatus , a machine 

 that builds itself. The vital process takes 

 place by means of continuous physico-chemical 

 processes; as a result of this the organism 

 can be called a chemical laboratory, although at 

 the same time it can also be considered a 

 laboratory technician .... Regardless of the 

 achievements in knowledge of individual processes 

 in the organism, nothing remains directed and 

 predominated on physico-chemical processes in 

 them, namely life itself. 



It is absolutely natural that now everything 

 is investigated from the point of view of 



36. Ibid., p. 187 



504 



