u8 



SCIENCE. 



plant ; 2d, that hence the solution of the life-question in the 

 Myxomycetes will solve the life-problem for the highest 

 vertebrate. 



Another consideration which must not be left out of the 

 account in any discussion of the life-question is the potent 

 influence of environment. Ordinary examples of this in- 

 fluence pass before our eyes every day. Heat necessitates 

 the germination of the seed, and light causes the plant to 

 grow. Gravity obliges its root to grow downward and its 

 stem to ascend. Certain sensations from without excite in- 

 evitably muscular contraction ; and a ludicrous idea may 

 provoke laughter in defiance of the will. Epidemic and 

 epizootic diseases show the dependence of function upon 

 external conditions, and the germ theory demonstrates the 

 utter disproportionality of the cause to the effect. The re- 

 markable similarity in the periodicity observed between sun- 

 spots and the weather has been extended to include the ap- 

 pearance of locusts and the advent of the plague. Even the 

 body politic feels its influence, Jevons having established a 

 coincident periodicity for commercial crises. 



The modern theory of energy, however, puts this influ- 

 ence in a still stronger light. As defined hitherto, energy 

 is either motion or position ; is kinetic or potential. En- 

 ergy of position derives its value obviously from the fact 

 that in virtue of attraction it may become energy of motion. 

 But attraction implies action at a distance ; and action at a 

 distance implies that matter may act where it is not. This 

 of course is impossible ; and hence action at a distance, and 

 with it attraction and potential energy, are disappearing 

 from the language of science. But what conception is it 

 which is taking its place ? By what action does the sun 

 hold our earth in its orbit ? The answer is to be found in 

 the properties of the ether which fills all space. The ex- 

 istence of this ether, the phenomena of light and electricity 

 abundantly prove. While so tenuous that Astronomy has 

 been taxed to prove that it exerts an appreciable resist- 

 tance upon the least of the celestial bodies, its elasticity is 

 such that its transmits a compression with a well nigh in- 

 finite velocity. On the one hand, Thomson has deter- 

 mined its inferior limit, and finds that a cubic mile of it 

 would weigh only one thousand-millionth of a pound ; on 

 the other, Herschel has calculated that, if an amount of it 

 equal in weight to a cubic inch of air be enclosed in a cubic 

 inch of space, its reaction outward would be upward of 

 seventeen billions of pounds. Instead of being represented 

 as is our air, by the pressure of a homogeneous atmosphere 

 fiye miles in height, such a pressure would represent just 

 such a homogeneous atmosphere five and a half billions of 

 miles high, or about one-third the distance to the nearest 

 fixed star ! In Herschel's own words : " Do what we will, 

 adopt what hypothesis we please, there is no escape in 

 dealing with the phenomena of light, from these gigantic 

 numbers, or from the conception of enormous physical 

 force in perpetual exertion at every point throughout all 

 the immensity of space." 



Now, as Preston has suggested, if we regard this ether as 

 a gas, defined by the kinetic theory that its molecules move 

 in straight lines, but with an enormous length of free path, 

 it is obvious that this ether may be clearly conceived of as 

 the source of all the motions of ordinary matter. It is an 

 enormous storehouse of energy, which is continually pass- 

 ing to and from ordinary matter, precisely as we know it to 

 do in the case of radiant transmission. Before so simple a 

 conception as this, both potential energy and action at a 

 distance are easily given up. All energy is kinetic energy, 

 the energy of motion. In a narrower sense, the energy of 

 matter-motion is ordinary kinetic energy ; the energy of 

 ether-motion, which may become matter-motion, fills the 

 conception of the older potential energy. Giving now to 

 the ether its storehouse of tremendous power, and giving 

 to it the ability to transfer this power to ordinary matter 

 upon opportunity, and we have an environment compared 

 with which the strongest steel is but the breath of the sum- 

 mer air. In presence of such an energy it is that we live 

 and move. In the midst of such tremendous power do we 

 act. Is it a wonder that out of such a reservoir the power 

 by which we live should irresistibly rush into the organism 

 and appear as the transmuted energy which we recognize 

 in the phenomena of life? Truly, as Spinoza has put it, 

 " Man thinks himself most free when he is most a slave." 

 Such now are some of the facts and fancies to be found 



in the science of to-day concerning the phenomena of life. 

 Physiologically considered, life has no mysterious pass- 

 ages, no sacred precincts into which the unhallowed foot 

 of science may not enter. Research has steadily diminish- 

 ed day by day the phenomena supposed vital. Physiology 

 is daily assuming more and more the character of an ap- 

 plied science. Every action performed by the living body 

 is sooner or later to be pronounced chemical or physical. 

 And when the last vestige of the vital principle shall dis- 

 appear, the word " Life," if it remain at all, will remain to 

 us only to signify, as a collective term, the sum of the phe- 

 nomena exhibited by an active organized or organic being. 



I cannot close without speaking a single word in favor 

 of a vigorous development in this country of physiological 

 research. What has already been done among us has been 

 well done. I have said with diffidence what I have said in 

 this address, because I see around me those who have 

 made these subjects the study of their lives, and who are 

 far more competent to discuss them than I am. But the la- 

 borers in the field are all too few, and the reasons therefor 

 are not far to seek. One of these undoubtedly is the high 

 scientific attainment necessary to a successful prosecution 

 of this kind of investigation. The physiological student 

 must be a physicist, a chemist, an anatomist and a physiol- 

 ogist all at once. Again, the course of instruction of 

 those who might fairly be expected to enter upon this work 

 — the medical students of the country — is directed toward 

 making them practitioners rather than investigators. In 

 the third place the importance of physiological studies in 

 connection with zoological research is only beginning in 

 this country to receive the share of attention it deserves. 

 I well remember the gratification I experienced in 1873 

 upon receiving a letter from Professor Louis Agassiz, ask- 

 ing me to give some lectures at Penikese upon physiologi- 

 cal chemistry ; a new departure for those times. In this 

 view of the case it seems very appropriate that a new sub- 

 section of this Association should be just now in process of 

 formation. We welcome warmly the body of men who form 

 it, and we predict that from the new subsection of Anatomy 

 and Physiology most valuable contributions will be re- 

 ceived for our proceedings. 



It is a beautiful conception of science which regards the 

 energy which is manifested on the earth as having its origin 

 in the sun. Pulsating awhile in the ether-molecules which 

 fill the intervening space, this motion reaches our earth 

 and communicates its tremor to the molecules of its matter. 

 Instantly all starts into life. The winds move, the waters 

 rise and fall, the lightnings flash and the thunders roll, all 

 as subdivisions of this received power. The muscle of the 

 fleeing animal transforms it in escaping from the hunter 

 who seeks to use it for the purpose of his destruction. 

 The wave that runs along that tiny nerve-thread to apprise 

 us of danger transmutes it, and the return pulse that re- 

 moves us from its presence is a portion of it. The groan 

 of the weary, the shriek of the tortured, the voiced agony 

 of the babeless mother, all borrow their significance from 

 the same source. The magnificence of the work of a Leo- 

 nardo da Vinci or a Michael Angelo ; the divine creations 

 of a Beethovan or a Mozart ; the immortal Principia of a 

 Newton and the M^chanique Celeste of a Laplace — all 

 had their existence at some point of time in oscillations of 

 ether in the intersolar space. But all this energy is only 

 a transitory possession. As the sunlight gilds the moun- 

 tain top and then glances off again into space, so this 

 energy touches upon and beautifies our earth and then 

 speeds on its way. What other worlds it reaches and vivi- 

 fies, we may never know. Beyond the veil of the seen, 

 science rrfay not penetrate. But religion, more hopeful, 

 seeks there for the new heavens and the new earth, wherein 

 shall be solved the problems of a higher life. 



The recent artificial production of the diamond is closely 

 followed by an interesting synthesis, by M. de Schulten, re- 

 sulting in the mineral analcine. On heating a solution of 

 silicate of soda or caustic soda, in presence of ar. alumi- 

 nous glass, to a temperature of 190 C. (374' P.) i r » a closed 

 vessel, during forty-eight hours, small but very perfect 

 transparent crystals, imbedded in gelatinous silica, were 

 formed on the walls of the tube. They answer in every 

 respect to the mineralogical characteristics of analcites. 



