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this connection the well-worn and much abused terms of 
“ material ” or “ immaterial,” in speaking of this admittedly 
inferential directive power in the organism. Professor Tyndall 
has demanded recognition for a very similar or identical 
agency under the name of ^ formative power 33 Besides, 
it is for the physicist to give some definition of “ matter v 
which is not based simply upon its phenomena, before he is 
entitled to demand that one should define that which is not 
matter. I cannot, however, fail to recognise that there 
exists in every living being some actual force independent 
of and superior to the protoplasm of which its substance 
is composed. By this force all the activities of the living - 
organism are controlled and directed, and we must sup- 
pose that it differs in degree, if not in kind, in different 
organisms. To designate such a force as “ vital” is but to 
use a term which we cannot philosophically define ; but of 
its actual existence we can nevertheless have no doubt. It 
is, in fact, the indwelling psyche which forms the real essence 
of all forms of living matter, from the humblest alga up to 
man himself, and without which “ life,” in its proper sense, 
would have no existence. What may be the essential nature 
of this psyche, how far it may differ in fundamental constitu- 
tion in different organisms, and in what manner it is united 
with the protoplasm of the material body and is enabled to 
influence this, are questions which, if answerable at all, belong 
to the domain of the psychologist andnot to that of the naturalist. 
If, however, it can be shown to have a real existence, then 
we shall have accomplished a part of what I hold to be one of 
the most pressing duties of the present generation, by linking 
on, so far as may be, the clear-sighted scientific knowledge 
of to-day to the elaborate and often self-evolved theories of 
the past, retaining what may appear good in these, and welding 
them into a homogeneous whole with modern ideas. 
The Chairman. — I am sure we are all much indebtedto Professor Nicholson 
for the very valuable paper he has sent to us, and we can only regret that 
it has been impossible for him to read it in person, in consequence of his being 
obliged to be at Edinburgh University taking the duties of Sir C. Wyville 
Thomson. All will concur in thanking Mr. G-orman for the very clear and 
able manner in which he has read the paper. (Hear, hear.) Those present 
can now offer any remarks upon the subject of the paper. 
Mr. J. E. Howard, F.RS. — I am glad to be able to give a general 
assent to the conclusions of the writer of this paper ; but could have wished 
that in giving a sketch of the fundamental phenomena manifested by living 
eings, he had not shown so much deference to the palpably false statements 
