352 DARWINISM AND THE PROBLEMS OF LIFE 



proportioned to the amount of force contained in the 

 food taken. But if these actions proceeded from a 

 special vital force, the amount of energy introduced in 

 the food would be superfluous in the body. 



Thus Vitalism is inconsistent with the law of 

 the conservation of energy. It has, therefore, been 

 modified into what is known as Neo-Vitalism. Generally 

 speaking, this theory admits that the same physico- 

 chemical forces are at work in living things as in 

 inorganic nature. But while the mechanical processes 

 alone are found in the inorganic world, living things 

 are also subject to other principles which are not found 

 in inorganic nature. 



We shall see something of this " teleological " 

 governing force in the next chapter. Here we will 

 only say that a unified conception of the organic and 

 inorganic worlds is preferable to the Vitalistic, especially 

 as we know only mechanical events as facts. The 

 Vitalists do not help us to understand the organic 

 world. They only question whether the problem can 

 be solved mechanically. 



There are, they say, two characteristics of organisms 

 in particular that cannot be understood mechanically — 

 their form and their purposiveness. 



It is true that all living things have a form, not only 

 the individuals as a whole, but even in their smallest 

 parts. The forms of organisms are conditions of 

 equilibrium. If we recall the simplest forms of living 

 things, those of the tiny protozoa, we find that they 

 are generally globular. The round shape is the form 

 of equilibrium of a fluid body, and we saw at an earlier 



