w. a. steyexsok". (103-(73) 



Over one thousand organic compounds, which bul a 

 JVw years since were formed within the vegetable or ani- 

 mal body, only by the action of a "vita] force," are 

 now produced synthetically from the elements which 

 constitute them, and "there is every reason to expect," 

 says the conservative but able author of The New 

 Chemistry — Prof. Cook, "that in the no distant future, 

 the chemist will be able to prepare, in his laboratory. 

 both the material of which the cell is fashioned, and the 

 various products with which it becomes filled during 

 life." 



It is true that the knowledge of man has not yet en- 

 abled him to make a vegetable or an animal cell, but this 

 is no evidence in favor of a "vital force," perse, but an 

 indication of ignorance relative to the ultimate consti- 

 tution of the cell. Indeed, pseudo- organic forms, which 

 resemble living cells, have heterogeneous contents, and 

 true enclosing membranes possessing dialysing power, 

 have already been reported, as produced by Monnier 

 and Yogt. 



It is well, however, to remind ourselves of the fact that 

 the "cell," as commonly understood, embracing a cell- 

 wall and an internal nucleus, represents in itself an ad- 

 vanced condition of organization, and not, as is so 

 often inferred, the most primitive, and the simplest of 

 life forms. "Cell," in biology, "is a technical term 

 used to denote a unit of living tissue, " and the fact that the 

 chemist can not make it is not proof that an inde- 

 pendent life principle resides in it, hut is proof of ignor- 

 ance of organic formation. 



If the fact of a '"vital force.'" distinct from physical 

 and chemical forces, is to be established because of ina- 

 bility to make by synthesis a living cell. then, in logical 

 fairness, should this force, or some other equally inde- 

 pendent of physical and chemical laws, he declared to pre- 

 side over the genesis and potencies of t hose inorganic ele- 

 ments and bodies which thus far have defied not synthe- 

 sis only, but analysis also. The atom, then, is the very 

 fountain of life, and many rocks and crystals are Hie 

 solid and enduring objects of its rule. 



Tn germinal matter is found the apparent seat of life, 

 for this it is thai transforms pabulum t<> build 

 tlie tissues at first, and in it lies the potency of restoring 



