62 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



of perpetual existence, with apparently undiminished 

 powers in spite of an almost infinite number of divi- 

 sions and subdivisions, surely there are few who will 

 believe that such a force can exist. The doctrine 

 is absolutely inconceivable, it cannot be reahzed in 



thought. 



Tones has well said \ ' We 



IW 



now that in all living things no separate or peculiar 



matter is present 



The stuff which takes part in 



the living actions and the forces which are inherent 

 in that stuff are there, and indestructible and in- 

 separable. Inorganic miatter and inorganic force al- 



ways 



exist together in 



living things ; 



so that if a 



must 



separable living force be also present, then w 

 admit that two totally different laws of force must 

 be in action at the 



same time in the same matter. 



■ 



The unity of nature will at least be preserved by our 

 hesitation to admit the assumption of a force capable 

 of creation and annihilation^ until some very conclusive 

 evidence be obtained that there actually is in hving 

 things such a force or forces capable of being separated 

 entirely from the matter of which they are made.' And 

 in addition to this kind of argument^ we may well ask 

 whether there is the need (such as the advocates for 

 the existence of a peculiar and independent ^ vital 

 principle' suppose) for a special force to effect the 

 transformation of physical forces within organized 

 structures ? The phenomena presented by living 



1 Croonian Lectures ' On Matter and Force ' at Royal College o 

 Physicians ('British Medical Journal,' May i6, 1868, p. 471). 



( 



; 



r 



? 



'1 aer 



to 



fell 



r 



to e 



those 



ical ioic'' 



ask [^'' 

 ries) 



the 



elatetl se 

 ffect 



modes 



manifestations 



force 

 tion 



IS 



deen 



of one 



mode of P^)' 

 of such a su{ 

 promulgators 

 the doctrine ( 

 force, it says 



itself as the ; 

 necessarily, i 



or F( 



faent relatioi 

 changed in ii 



"s under the ( 

 festationsi. \ 





hable to b y 



