306 



SCIENCE. 



in water passes from the non-living to the living state ? 

 Should we see atoms being arranged and entering into 

 new combinations according to some physical- properties 

 inherent in the very matter — atoms combining according 

 to their chemical affinities ; or should we see the com- 

 plex chemical compounds of the pabulum being changed, 

 their elements being somehow torn asunder trom their 

 combinations, or rather quietly separating from one an- 

 other in obedience to some force or power of which we 

 cannot form any accurate conception ? The most extra- 

 ordinary active atomic movements must be taking place, 

 and in the quietest possible manner. Certainly the 

 phenomena which accompany ordinary chemical decom- 

 positions in non-living matter do not occur. No two 

 things in this world can be more dissimilar than man's 

 chemical laboratory and nature's laboratory in this living 

 matter. That the formation of the germ is to be ac- 

 counted for by the operation of the ordinary forces of 

 matter is one of the most absurd of absurd propositions ; 

 but that the idea of such an origin should still be en- 

 tertained and taught by a physicist or chemist is unac- 

 countable. 



There are no actions in non-living matter with which 

 the actions of living matter can with any degree of fair 

 ness or accuracy be compared. No argument in essential 

 particulars can be pointed out which would justify the 

 use of the word "analogy" without doing violence to 

 truth and cheating the reason. To maintain the identity 

 of the vital and inorganic forces on the ground of some 

 fancied analogy between vital action and crystallization 

 is most wrong and willfully misleading, for the fallacy has 

 been many times exposed and exploded. Been a crystal 

 and living matter there is not the slightest analogy, for 

 the one can be destroyed and caused to re-form as many 

 times as we like, while the living matter cannot be even 

 dissolved. In the attempt to dissolve it, it dies, and can- 

 not be reproduced. 



It is obvious that before particles of living matter pass 

 from the living into the formed state their component 

 atoms, or groups of them, must somehow be made to 

 take up a definite position with respect to one another. 

 Such changes of place as must occur can only be brought 

 about by some peculiar force, property, or power, the ac- 

 tion of which is temporary. Seeing that the changes in ques- 

 tion can take place only while matter is in the temporary 

 living state — this matter having been detached from mat- 

 ter in the same living condition — the force or power in 

 question must be of an exceptional nature, and of an 

 order different from that to which the ordinary forces or 

 powers of non-living matter belong. This wonderful 

 living power which is postulated causes the atoms or the 

 particles of the matter to take up certain positions favor- 

 able to their combination in a certain definite manner. 

 Thus certain substances are formed which have a pecu- 

 liar chemical composition, and in certain cases special 

 properties and endowments not possessed by substances 

 that can be formed in any other way. It seems to me it 

 would be as unreasonable to maintain that the bricks, or 

 rather the clay of which they are made, or the silica and 

 alumina of the clay, or the properties of the elements 

 entering into the composition of these substances, design, 

 fashion and build the house, as to assert that the forma- 

 tion of living things is due to the physical properties of the 

 materials of which their bodies are composed. Vital 

 power impresses as it were its seal upon the matter — upon 

 the structures of the living organism — and ought surely 

 therefore to be considered as above and supeiior to the 

 mere stuff -that it moulds. Vitality, or vital power, forces, 

 bends, arranges, and fashions just as man himself 

 moulds and fashions the clay he works with, only silently, 

 invisibly, more perfectly, and in a definite and pre- 

 arranged manner, and without mind or will or ingenuity, 

 or instruments or organs, 



Judging from the facts, is it not indeed more probable 

 that the ordinary properties, the attractions, the affinities 



of mere matter are in suspension rather than in action, 

 while the matter continues to be in the living state? 

 When these properties and affinities come into play, do 

 we not get from the matter that was alive albuminous 

 matters, fat and other things, of known properties and 

 definite composition ? But neither these nor any definite 

 compounds existed when the matt< r was living. They 

 came into being at the moment of its death. The idea of 

 these substances existing in the living matter is inadmis- 

 sible, for if they were there, some of them could be dem- 

 onstrated. Such a substance as fatty matter cannot, of 

 course, exist in the living state ; fat cannot grow and form 

 fat out of materials which contain the elements of the 

 substance in different states of combination, any more 

 than granite can. If it be conceded that during the living 

 state the ordinary properties and affinities of the matter 

 are suspended, it will be admitted that none of the ordi- 

 nary properties of material particles can be reasonably 

 credited with the ability to interfere with the exercise of 

 affinities ; and therefore it seems reasonable to conclude 

 that some totally different power, vitality or vital power 

 (which same, unlike the ordinary properties of the matter, 

 is lost or ceases to act when living matter dies), is the true 

 cause of the exceptional state in which the material par- 

 ticles are held while the matter remains living. 



But thought may take us yet further. Gradually pass- 

 ing inwards towards the centre, through vast concentric 

 layers of particles, we arrive at last in imagination near 

 the centre of a particle far too minute to be visible, 

 where the atoms of lifeless matter first live. As to the 

 actual nature of this wonderful change which occurs, we 

 are, and from a purely physical point of view must remain, 

 in darkness. For it is certain that the new temporary living 

 state is absolutely district from the non-living state in 

 which the matter existed but an instant before. Before 

 long this will, I doubt not, be generally admitted by those 

 acquainted with the facts and not biassed by previous 

 confessions or beliefs. 



It is invariably in living matter devoid of structure and 

 form, that all those wonderful actions of surpassing in- 

 terest which result in the development of form the most 

 striking and structure the most elaborate, are carried on. 

 Forces or powers, but of a non-material order, trans- 

 mitted through succeeding particles of the same kind, and 

 continuously operating, it may be upon vast quantities of 

 matter, through centuries or centuries of centuries (mil- 

 lions on millions of years"), are the activities by which 

 the re- arrangement of the elements under certain fixed 

 conditions which eventuate in definite and predetermined 

 form, structure, and composition, is brought about. The 

 changes, conversions, formations in question, at present 

 invisible and undemonstrable, require considerable time 

 for their completion. Compared with the visible phe- 

 nomena which succeed them, and which may be watched, 

 described and delineated by us, they are slow indeed. 

 During days, weeks and months, in darkness and in si- 

 lence, arrangements and re-arrangements of the most 

 complex character incessantly and quietly proceed, as we 

 say, in obedience to laws (though we do not know), ere 

 the first visible traces of the new being can be discerned 

 by the most careful investigation. 



Remember that the changes in question affect a mere 

 modicum of matter. A grain, nay, the hundredth, the 

 thousandth part of a grain, and far less than this may at 

 one time constitute the material substance from which 

 springs a tree that in -its maturity will comprise tons of 

 matter, every grain of which will be stamped with indiv- 

 iduality. Is it not, then, most strange that in these days 

 which surpass all previous time in the passion exhibited 

 by men to see into the nature of things, that attention 

 should be so much absorbed in considerations relating to 

 the mere matter of which a living thing is made, while 

 the study of the forces and powers which have effected 

 the forming and shaping of the material substance is not 

 only almost wholly neglected, but positively discouraged ? 



