225 
The simple truth is that the essential phenomena of all 
living beings cannot be explained without recourse to some 
hypothesis of power totally different from any of tbe known 
forms or modes of energy. Any one who allows his reason 
to be influenced by the facts of nature as at present discovered 
will feel obliged to admit the existence of vital power as dis- 
tinct from, and capable of controlling, the ordinary forces of 
non-living matter. It has been conclusively shown that the 
laws of vital force or power are essentially different from those 
by which ordinary matter and its forces are governed. My own 
views on this matter, put forward during the last twenty 
years, have, of course, been ignored by materialistic prophets ; 
but it is satisfactory to find that now and then the word vital 
is actually used in speaking of phenomena, not to be explained 
by physics and chemistry, by some scientific men who, never- 
theless, support the doctrine that vital is, after all, but a 
form or mode of the ordinary physical action of non-living- 
matter. The fact is, those who act thus feel the weakness 
of the cause they advocate, and try to hide their confusion 
by vagueness and obscurity of expression. Within a very 
few years, the hypothesis of molecular machinery will probably 
be forgotten, and the operation of vital power, as distinct from 
any ordinary force of matter, will be generally admitted and 
taught. 
Purely vital phenomena are manifested by every form of 
living matter from the highest to the lowest. They are tempo- 
rarily resident in matter which has been derived from matter 
in the same state, and when once vital phenomena have ceased 
they cannot be caused to recur in the same particles. Although 
it is frequently alleged that there is only a difference of degree 
between the changes in living matter and those in non-living 
matter, no one, as I have stated, has been able to support this 
proposition by facts and arguments, or to adduce one single 
example of matter in any state which illustrates the asserted 
gradations of change from the living to non-living, or from the 
latter condition to living. The more we learn concerning the 
ordinary properties of matter the less probable does it appear 
that these properties will ever be found adequate to account 
for the facts of living. How can any reasonable person 
expect that the disposition of the materials used in the con- 
struction of any apparatus or organism will be adequately 
accounted for by a demonstration of the properties of the 
materials themselves ? Material atoms in living things are 
made to take up certain definite relations with respect to one 
another which no experiment has shown to be due to, or to 
depend upon, properties associated v^dth the matter. Nor 
VOL. XVI. Q 
