Conclusion 357 
The third hypothesis attributes the vital phenomenon 
essentially to an intra-nuclear oscillating nervous dis- 
charge; and this idea has enabled us, with the help of the 
above mentioned second hypothesis of specific accumu- 
lators, to explain likewise the fundamental property of 
the life phenomenon, which consists in assimilation. 
It is hardly necessary to state that the first and second 
hypotheses although, as we have said, all the three 
hypotheses support each other mutually, are yet totally 
independent of the third, and therefore can stand equally 
well whether the latter is accepted or rejected. 
We do not venture to offer this latter as a true and 
proper hypothesis. The phenomenon of life is still too 
little established for so bold a venture. We consider it 
only as a provisional scheme of the vital process which 
may serve as an initial concrete basis for further investi- 
gation into the nature of life. For in affording 
provisionally any firm foundation upon which the discus- 
sion of a question still awaiting solution can be based, one 
attains always the great advantage of determining exactly 
the conditions of the question, of showing clearly the 
untenability of certain views which was not possible 
formerly while the question had yet too indefinite a form, 
and of bringing us in this way slowly but certainly nearer 
to a correct understanding of the phenomenon, in propor- 
tion as after discarding the untenable propositions the 
tenable stand out more clearly and convincingly and 
thereby are given a more firm foundation. 
It remains then only to await quietly the judgment of 
the critic and to express in advance our thanks to all 
those who are willing to accord us friendly support in 
word and deed, and thereby make possible a somewhat 
more thorough elaboration of the subject which we were 
