PEOOEEDINGS 



OP 



THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY. 



SCIENCE 



PAPEES EEAD BEFOEE THE ACADEMY. 



I. — On Heat as a Eactor in Vital Action (so called). By Geouse 

 SiGEESON, M. D., Ch. M., F. L. S. 



[Read June 24, 1872]. 



VAEIOUS opinions have been expressed concerning the nature of Life. 

 Some regard it as a peculiar agency, essential to the development 

 of organized creatures, giving to them the first impulse and guiding their 

 development, until the close. "With them it is an entity, incompar- 

 able with any forces manifested in physics, and inscrutable from a 

 physicist stand-point. Others are content to use the word to cover the 

 total phenomena displayed bj^ an organized Being, from end to end of 

 its career; while a third party employ it to designate a mode of activity, 

 peculiar to such beings, and distinguishing them from inanimate bodies. 



Such views, however hj^pothetical, influence those who entertain 

 them, to no small extent, and, perhaps, occasionally make those 

 partizans who would otherwise be inquirers. Although theories may 

 sometimes be of much advantage, it can do little harm when we find 

 them clashing to put them aside, and leave the question in dispute an 

 open question, Avhilst we give freedom to a search after facts, waiting 

 for their aid to form an opinion. The process is less attractive, and 

 much slower, but it may possess the qualities of greater solidity and 

 permanence. 



For these reasons, I have ventured to invite attention to a portion 

 only of the many phenomena whereof Life is made up — though this 

 portion, it is true, has been held to be highly characteristic and remark- 



R. I. A. PHOC. VOL, II., SER. II., 8CIEXCE, B 



