OF FORCE. 
193 
intelligence to life, or a quality analogous to it, by which it foresees what it should do. An 
erroneous view of forces has undoubtedly been propagated in consequence of the diversity 
which may be recognized in their phenomena: thus the aeration of the black blood in the 
lungs has been regarded as due to vitality. The digestion of food is still more so; yet 
both processes may be instances of pure chemical action. The vitality of the apparatus, in 
these cases, is dwelt upon, and is undoubtedly the basis upon which the vital doctrine rests. 
But we may discard such a view, for it is not the vitality of the apparatus, but the pro¬ 
perties of the bodies mingling' together in the apparatus, which gives rise to the pheno¬ 
mena indicating the change they have undergone. We might as well say that the forma¬ 
tion of ether, when alcohol and sulphuric acid are mixed, is due to the sides of the retort, 
as that food is digested in the stomach by virtue of organs, independent of the substance 
taken into it. The organs which contain fluids are destitute of power over the thing con¬ 
tained, except to confine and convey, just as much so as glass and copper tubes, and re¬ 
torts and flasks. This may look too much like inorganic phenomena, although the inor¬ 
ganic stand in opposition to organic. The first certainly performs no function, while it is 
the peculiar property of the latter to exercise one; it is essentially functional and active, 
while the inorganic is inert and at rest. But it is not through the organ in its activeness that 
activity exists, or that force is manifested. The organ is not transformed as a whole; but 
transformations are going on in its minute parts, as the cell : it is not the force of the 
organ, any more than it is the force of the retort when transformations occur in it, but each 
integral cell has activity, and the sum total of these activities, is the measure of the activity 
of the organ. 
As in chemistry there is a combining and an arranging force, termed polarity, so in or¬ 
ganic bodies there is a formative and directive force, which has been called vital. The 
combining and formative forces are analogous to each other, and so are the polar and di¬ 
rective forces also analogous in their respective spheres. 
Mulder says that function depends as much upon form as upon matter; that the acorn 
of the oak forms tannic acid, the capsule of the poppy, opium, notwithstanding they may 
grow upon the same soil and be nourished by the same elements. This common result is 
due to the form of the cell as well as to the matter of the cell, and hence it follows, ac¬ 
cording to Mulder, that form has force. This view seems to be sustained by the fact that 
each species has its peculiar cell, and its peculiar combination of cells. The embryo which 
is formed by the parent, has both the form of the cell, and the arrangement determined, 
before the forces which develop the future individual come into action. Here then is the 
origin of the power which individualizes the species. The parent can only produce its 
like ; it forms the cell, combines and arranges the groups, and in the cell the directive 
force slumbers till called into action by heat and moisture. It may be said that the cell and 
its combinations in the embryo, in conjunctton with the matter, can only develop the in¬ 
dividual like the parent, though the activities are merely chemical and independent of a 
virtual force; that it is not philosophical to suppose each being is endowed with a specific 
[Agricultural Report — Vol. iii.] 25 
