RELATION OF PHILOSOPHY TO PSYCHOLOGY. 
27 
to the same level or even lower, to the bottom; but it was 
supposed impossible to work up synthetically above a certain 
hard and fast line. Mineral substances therefore were such 
as are found in nature or derivatives from such ascensively 
or synthetically, or, in any case, into every step of the for¬ 
mation of which entered chemical forces only. Organic sub¬ 
stances were such as are either life-products or derivatives 
from life-products, descensively or analytically— i. e., they 
were substances in the production of which life entered as 
one link in the chain of preceding causes. Without life they 
could not be. 
Here, then, seemed to be the boundary line between the 
mineral and the organic kingdoms. Here nature seemed 
to draw the line and say, “ Thus far may your pure chemical 
action go, but no farther; ” the rest can only be made directly 
or indirectly by life. Thus, then, the division between min¬ 
eral and organic chemistry seemed sharp and easily under¬ 
stood. But, on the other hand, organic chemistry seemed 
to shade insensibly into physiology. Chemical changes are 
going on continually in the animal body. Are not these 
in the domain of organic chemistry too ? Surely they are. 
The distinction was sharper between mineral and organic 
chemistry than between organic chemistry and physiology. 
Such was the condition of things fifty years ago. But 
soon one of the substances of the so-called organic group 
was made synthetically from strictly mineral substances; 
then another; then still another. The line was readjusted 
each time, but still held. But soon triumph after triumph 
followed each other so quickly that readjustment was no 
longer possible. Finally the army of chemists broke over 
the line ,conquering and still to conquer, and in the first 
flush of victory claiming synthetic authority, not only over 
the whole territory of derivatives from life-products, but also 
over the original life-products themselves; and not only 
over these, but also over all nature, organic and inorganic, 
living and dead, thus abolishing entirely the whole science 
of physiology by absorbing it. 
5—Bull. Phil. Soc., Wash., Vol. 12. 
