718 



THE AMERICAN NATURALIST 



[Vol. XLVI 



controversy set going in 1644 by the "Principes de la 

 Philosophic " at a time when practically all men were 

 vitalists. During the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- 

 turies this contest engaged the ablest minds, yet mechan- 

 ism achieved no decisive victory, but only an increase in 

 the number of its followers, and the substitution of the 

 original soul in vitalism by the life force of Miiller, 

 itself destined to elimination in the nineteenth century 

 by supersession, largely by neglect, and by direct experi- 

 ments on vital energetics. 



Emil du Bois Reymond stands out as the champion of 

 mechanism during this period, although the limitations 

 of his materialism led him to classify the problem of life 

 with six other insoluble riddles. Lotze overthrew the 

 life force with arguments, substituted a purposeful pre- 

 formation in the germ, and protected it from further 

 harm by asserting that to inquire into its origin was un- 

 scientific. Fechner and Preyer attempted to clear the at- 

 mosphere by insisting that life is fundamental and the 

 real problem the origin of the inorganic. Virchow con- 

 tributed the idea of a mechanism superimposed upon 

 that already known, and this in the hands of his successor 

 Rmdfleisch became a theory of atomic consciousness. In 

 the seventies, however, ghostly voices fell upon deaf 

 ears, for under the leadership of Darwin a seemingly 

 satisfactory natural explanation of adaptation forced 

 the mechanistic pendulum to its highest point. 



While this period of scientific development proved 

 fatal to naturalistic vitalism, metaphysical not only sur- 

 vived, but during the latter-day Darwinian decadence 

 and reconstruction has again emerged, leaving behind 

 some of the crudities of its forerunners, and apparently 

 purged of ghosts. A change of names, however, does 

 not constitute a change of nature. The ghosts, more 

 rarefied than ever, are with us still, onlv to-day we call 

 them Entelechies, Dominants, Psychoids and Elan Vital. 



