96-(66) PHYSIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF VITAL FORCE. 



or made synonymous witli the " soul;" while to the phys- 

 iologist, it refers only to the sum of phenomena arising 

 in organized bodies. If what "cannot be explained by 

 chemistry or physics," constitutes the vital functions, 

 then, by simply eliminating the known or non-vital fac- 

 tors, we may easily learn the exact amount of the vital 

 element. 



Science has already "banished the vital force from 

 the entbe province of organic chemical compounds, 

 proving tliem to be subject to the same physical and chemi- 

 cal forces which determine the composition of mineral mat- 

 ter," and it now remains to test by analysis and synthe- 

 sis the problem of organization itself. 



It may very properly be asked, if the vital force has 

 been banished from the entire province of organic chem- 

 ical compounds, as asserted and demonstrated, in what 

 it now resides, where is it located and what are its func- 

 tions ? 



Chemical science has already demonstrated that all 

 "proximate principles" and tissues of an organized 

 body are, in an ultimate analysis, reducible to some of 

 the elementary substances ; and, as in inorganic bodies, 

 morphological differences result from the various combi- 

 nations of the ultimate elements, so, too, is it with or- 

 ganized bodies. So fa r as form alone is concerned, it is 

 no more difficult to understand why organic compounds, 

 nndei- conditions of vital relations, take on the special 

 form of a single speck of bioplasm, in one case, of a 

 vegetable in another, or of an animal form in another 

 case, than it is to understand why the same elements 

 will produce substances either allotropic or isomeric. 



The phenomena are classitied and thus explained, but 

 in neither example is the ultimate nature, or condition 

 which causes the morphological difference known. There 

 is no known force in nature capable of lifting the ele- 

 ments to the plane of animal organisms, except through 

 the intermediate planes of the mineral and the vegeta- 

 ble kingdoms. Chemism is sufficient to form the 

 mineral kingdom from the simple elements, which are 

 i indei' physical force alone. As the elementary combi- 

 nations necessary, to form a mineral, involve an expendi- 

 ture of force, which is transformed from a lower to a 

 higher expression, so, in resolving the mineral back again 



