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individual cell or cytode has, in a certain limited sense/ and 
in a certain limited degree,, its own independent life, its own 
period of active existence, its own proper work and function. 
It is no less true, however, that each and all of the cells of 
a compound and complex organism draw their life from that 
of the whole. To assert that the life of a higher animal is 
the mere added-up total of the lives of the component cells 
which form the individual, is to entirely ignore the all-im- 
portant effects which flow from collocation and relative arrange- 
ment. Just as well might we assert that there is no difference 
between a heap of bricks and a house, or that a statue is 
nothing more than a block of marble, plus the aggregate 
mechanical energy of the blows of the sculptor with his mallet. 
Moreover — and here we touch the root of the matter — collo- 
cation would alone be powerless to produce the varied and 
wonderfully complex vital phenomena of the higher organisms, 
and cannot but be itself the result of some directing and 
unifying power, which we must suppose to be present, in 
greater or less degree, in all forms of life. 
What, then, is this directive force ? It is the old “ vital 
force ” of the vitalists, but the title is a bad one, and has 
necessarily led to much and inevitable misconception. No 
scientific observer at the present day can accept the assump- 
tion that there exists any peculiar physical force which can bo 
added to and again taken away from matter, and upon the 
presence or absence of which depends the animated or lifeless 
condition of the organism. No scientific observer, further, 
will feel disposed to deny that a very large number of the 
processes which go on in the living body, and which have 
usually been called “vital,” are really the result of the 
ordinary physico-chemical forces modified by the peculiarities 
of the medium through which their operation is determined. 
At the same time, I, for one, find it impossible to believe that 
all the so-called “ vital ” phenomena of even the simplest of 
living beings depend upon the action of the known physical 
and chemical forces upon the peculiar kind of matter which 
we term “ protoplasm.” In all living beings, I must assume 
the existence of some directing power, which, after all, is no 
more hypothetical than is the supposed peculiar <e molecular 
constitution ” of Professor Allman, or the complex chemical 
constitution, of which “ we can form no idea,” of Dr. Fletcher 
and Dr. Drysdale. When we come to think of the vital 
phenomena of the higher animals, I hold the hypothesis of 
an inner directing power to be absolutely inevitable ; but if 
we admit such an idea for man, we must equally admit it, with 
the necessary modifications, for the Moner. I will not use in 
