334 The Vital Phenomenon: Assimilation 
between the physico-chemical properties of the derived 
substances created by the specific activity of each living 
cell, and the properties of the cell nuclei which spring 
directly from the special forces which constitute life. 
The specific differences result from the very modality 
of the cell life. Cell life is a special property of matter 
which, like all its highest properties, undoubtedly con- 
sists in a particular mode of movement. One can say 
in some measure that the cell is a circuit of life. Further 
vital force, like light or electricity, with which one can 
compare it, not so much to show that it is very similar 
to them as to facilitate the comprehension of it, presents 
multiple varieties due to variations of wave lengths, of 
their rythm, direction, or of any other element of this 
movement which one could suppose or discover. These 
variations are without doubt incomparably more numer- 
ous than those of electricity, which are limited enough, 
than those even of light, which are certainly infinitely 
more numerous. And just as colors indicate the differ- 
ences of the different kinds of light, so the different 
physiological functions of species of cells indicate differ- 
ent modalities of life.” 25? 
It is worth while to stop a moment here, to show 
in this connection how readily biologists are inclined to 
fall into two opposite exaggerations. 
Some deny flatly the possibility of ever arriving at 
an understanding of the nature of life. But if we ask 
ourselves in what this understanding of the nature of 
life could consist, from the point of view of positive 
philosophy, we have no difficulty in recognizing that 
*"°Bard: La spécificité cellulaire et ses principales conséquences. 
La semaine médicale. Paris, 10. March 1894. P. 116. 
