OPINIONS ON GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY 169 



and these 'movements, which constitute active life, 

 result from the action of a stimulating cause which 

 excites them." * 



For the science of all living bodies Lamarck pro- 

 posed the word " Biology," which is so convenient a 

 term at the present day. The word first appears in the 

 preface to the Hydroge'ologte,'p\ih\{sh.e6. in 1802. It is 

 worthy of note that in the same year the same word was 

 proposed for the same science by G. R. Treviranus as 

 the title of a work, Biologic, der Philosophie der lebenden 

 iVi^/ar, published in 1802-1805 (vols, i.-vi., 1802-1822), 

 the first volume appearing in 1802. 



In the second part of the Philosophie zoologique he 

 considers the physical causes of life, and in the in- 

 troduction he defines nature as the ensemble of objects 

 which comprise: (i) All existing physical bodies; (2) 

 the general and special laws which regula'te the 

 changes of condition and situation of these bodies ; 

 (3) finally, the movement eveiywhere going on among 

 them resulting in the wonderful order of things in 

 nature. 



To regard nature as eternal, and consequently as 

 having existed from all time, is baseless and unreason- 



* Here might be quoted for comparison other famous definitions of 

 life : 



"Life is the sum of the functions by which death is resisted." 

 — Bichat. 



" Life is the result of organization." — (?) 



" Life is the principle of individuation." — Coleridge ex. Schelling. 



" Life is the twofold internal movement of composition and decom- 

 position, at once general and continuous." — De Biainville, who wisely 

 added that there are "two fundamental and correlative conditions 

 inseparable from the living being — an organism and a medium." 



' ' Life is the continuous adjustment of internal relations to external 

 relations." — Herbert Spencer. 



