296 



SCIENCE. 



materialist tendencies of what is miscalled the science of 

 our time. Thought is to be crushed, and any speculations 

 are to be condemned which do not happen to favor the 

 arbitrary dogmas of the purely physical school. ' But no 

 doubt these attempts, like preceding ones of the same 

 order made at different periods of history — although they 

 may succeed for a time, and by them people may be 

 driven away from the truth — will ere long be given up. 

 They may be safely left to the gradual process of disin- 

 tegration and ultimate dissipation by which these and 

 such-like fancies of physical ingenuity will be disposed 

 of. 



As I have shown elsewhere, whenever tissue and other 

 matters peculiar to living beings are to be formed, living 

 matter undergoes change. In fact, the act of forming 

 these things corresponds with the cessation of life in the 

 particles. 



Let us now consider the probable nature of the mar- 

 vellous forces or powers which operate upon the material 

 of the living matter, and determine the relations to one 

 another of the elements or collections of elements of 

 which it consists. By the relations established between 

 the elements shortly before living matter dies, will de- 

 pend the properties and composition of the resulting 

 formed substances. The changes in each particular kind 

 of living matter are somewhat different, but peculiar to 

 and characteristic of that particular kind, and as regards 

 it, constant and uniform. But no differences in the 

 chemical composition or in any physical characters to be 

 shown in different kinds of living matter, will in any way 

 account for or explain the differences so remarkable in 

 the formed material which is produced by or results from 

 the death of the living matter. Nor do any properties 

 of the particles yet discovered enable us to suggest a 

 plausible physical hypothesis to account for the facts. 



All those peculiarities in form, structure, and properties 

 of tissue, which characterize the multitudinous forms of 

 life around us, and which enable us to distinguish them 

 from one another, are imposed upon the matter of the 

 moment when it passes from the living to the formed 

 state, or succeed as the result of a long series of changes 

 then initiated. These peculiarities are not found in any 

 ordinary^ matter, and can only be accounted for on the 

 supposition that some force, property, or power exists 

 which is peculiar and belongs to the matter only while 

 its life lasts. This exerts but a temporary influence on 

 the material particles, which are by it constrained to take 

 up such prearranged positions with respect to one an- 

 other as must necessarily result in the formation of 

 definite compounds. To this prearranged disposition of 

 the atoms of matter must every character of formed 

 material and every distinctive property of tissue be traced 

 back. This is, indeed, the cause of the varying form, 

 structure, and property of every tissue and every living 

 form in nature. The instant the influence of vital power 

 in restraining the combination of atoms, ceases to be ex- 

 erted, definite compounds are formed, but these are not 

 living. The matter of which they consist has ceased 

 to live. There are no phenomena occurring in non-liv- 

 ing matter in any way comparable with these vital phe- 

 nomena.- Scientific opinion on these matters has lately 

 been unduly influenced by a materialist party, which, like 

 a political caucus, has assumed the right to direct thought 

 and to promulgate the particular dogma which alone is 

 to be accepted by the faithful. 



If now I permit myself to pass beyond the point to 

 which I have been led by actual observation,— if I try to 

 advance beyond the present microscopic limit, travelling 

 as it were upon the same lines as when observing within 

 it, and try to realize the phenomena which occur during 

 the early period of development of some comparatively 

 simple vegetable tissue, a leaf for example,— I think the 

 following description will not be far from the truth : A 

 mass of living matter, endowed with special powers 

 working under certain definite conditions, takes up cer- 



tain materials and increases in size thereby. Imparting 

 to the new matter its powers, unweakened in force, as it 

 grows, it soon divides into several portions, each of which 

 in like manner grows and divides. The arrangement of 

 the several masses, though fixed within certain limits, is 

 determined not by any forces, powers, attractions, or repul- 

 sions acting upon all of them, but simply by the rate of 

 growth of each, and division cf the several masses under 

 then existing external conditions ; the dimensions each 

 was to attain, as well as its properties, composition, 

 color and the like being due to the life, force, or power 

 each separate mass derived from the parental one which 

 gave it origin, and from which it had been detached. 

 But while the above phenomena are proceeding, changes 

 are also occurring on the surface of each mass. The 

 living matter in this situation, whether from the particles 

 first formed, and being therefore the oldest, reaching the 

 surface, and coming to the end of their living existence, 

 or from some other cause I cannot say — passes out of 

 the living state, and the component particles or cerlain 

 of them combine, assume a certain form, and acquire 

 physical properties they never possessed before. The 

 formed material thus produced owes its colour, chemical 

 composition, physical characters, internal structure, and 

 the like, to the vital force or property in obedience to 

 which the elements of the matter were made to occupy 

 such positions and assume such relations with respect to 

 one another just before death as must ensure the forma- 

 tion of the particular substances which result. 



From the moment when the formation of the formed 

 material occurred, the relative position of the several 

 masses probably altered little. Growth may no doubt 

 take place in certain directions by outgrowths, but none 

 of the elementary parts with its surrounding formed 

 non-living material cannot move from its place and get 

 before or above any of its neighbors, as must at least 

 be held to have been possible up to the time when its 

 movements were restricted by the formed substances on 

 its surface. 



I would here remark generally, that if very little non- 

 living matter is associated with the living matter, the lat- 

 ter may move in any direction with equal facility, and one 

 part of a mass may place itself above or in advance of 

 another portion just as easily as it could descend below 

 it. But when a layer of formed material has been pro- 

 duced on the surface of the living matter, the entire ele- 

 mentary part becomes subject to gravitation in conse- 

 quence of the quantity of non-living matter that is 

 formed. 



There is not, I think, any good reason for accepting 

 the conclusion that one of a collection of elementary 

 parts, at any period of development, can sympathize or 

 otherwise influence the actions of others, as Virchow 

 seems to think. The suggestion that any force or power 

 acting, as it were, from a centre, governs, regulates, and 

 determines the changes taking place in surrounding and 

 more or less distant particles, is, in my opinion, inadmis- 

 sible. We might, with as much show of reason, refer 

 the harmonious action of the several parts of the adult 

 organism to some controlling or governing power situ- 

 ated we know not where, influencing, we know not how, 

 actions of many different kinds occurring at considerable 

 distances from the seat of its existence. Although very 

 high authorities have given their sanction to views of the 

 kind, and have advocated the existence in connection 

 with each individual organism of some power or force 

 capable of operating through material of even considera- 

 ble thickness and of controlling matter at a distance, I 

 venture to assert that the conclusions are not supported 

 by the results of observation and experiment. The idea 

 of one particle of living matter influencing other parti- 

 cles at a distance from it, much less sympathizing with 

 or being affected by vital changes occurring in them, 

 cannot, I think, be entertained by any one who has 

 studied the phenomena as they occur in living beings. 



