104-1 74 i PHYSIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF VITAL FORCE. 



to physical completeness portions of the body that may 

 be injured or diseased. The repair of living tissues after 

 mutilation is not, however, positive evidence of the ex- 

 istence of a special principle, for the same action occurs 

 in inorganic materials. 



Pasteur records the fact that "when a crystal is broken 

 on any one of its faces, and replaced in the fluid of 

 crystallization, we remark that while the crystal increases* 

 in all directions by the deposit of crystalline particles, a 

 very decided simultaneous action takes place at the 

 broken or injured part, and this action suffices in a few 

 hours, not merely for the general, regular formation of 

 increase over all parts of the crystal but also for the res- 

 toration of regularity in the injured part.'" Shall we 

 ascribe ;i ••vital principle " to the unorganized crystal as 

 well as to organized vegetable or animal tissue ? 



The mysteries of nature are not all confined to life ex- 

 pressions. Who shall explain the ultimate nature of 

 crystallization, which, under the laws of fixed axial ra- 

 tios, gives to each variety such definite and invariable 

 form ( 



Who shall explain the flower's perfume \ Where is the 

 ••vital force" in the seed which lies for ages in the tomb 

 of some Pharaoh I Does "vital force." as an independ- 

 ent entity, which works contrary to physical and chem- 

 ical laws, thus imprison itself and voluntarily submit to 

 what must be. to it, a death '. If it acts independently of 

 the physical forces of nature, why has it not furnished ev- 

 idence thereof in someway or at some time \ How is life 

 made active in this sped so long dried and practically deadj 

 Not by any occult influence at discord with organic growth 

 but simply by environing the seed with conditions favora- 

 ble to physical well being. Heat, light and moisture — all 

 physical and chemical agents — soon revivify this seed, 

 and evidence is added to sustain the proposition that 

 while "the present state of knowledge furnishes us with 

 no link between the living and the not living, yet are 

 both actuated by forces of the same kind. " Vita] 

 force," therefore is. in reality, only another term for the 

 properties of matter ; ir denotes simply the causes of 

 certain great groups of natural operations, as we employ 

 the terms •'electricity"' and "'electrical force" to 

 denote others. But to use the term " vitality " or ll vital 



