THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 
273 
In this connection I cannot pass over the contribution towards 
the solution of the question offered by Hermann Lotze, a name 
justly honoured in Germany and England among those who seek 
to traverse the higher realms of philosophic thought. Lotze's 
conception of the origin and also development of Life is both 
" mechanical " and not mechanical. In an essay contributed to 
Wagner's Hand- Dictionary of Physiology he advocated the claim 
of the mechanical view to a place in the science of Physiology. 
He taught that the existence and processes of actual Life and its 
propagation could not be understood without implying an ordered 
action in the particles entering into the structure — action 
necessitated by law. In his Metaphysics, published many years 
later, he maintains the same view, only that he guards it from 
inferences which appear to have been drawn from his earlier 
representations. He considers that the assumption of a Vital 
Force is not warranted, while at the same time he admits that 
there are no means at our command that will enable us to 
manufacture artificially a product which even remotely resembles 
a living organism. His position with reference to mechanism is 
thus expressed : " I simply adhere now to the decision which I 
then expressed. In order to explain the connection of vital 
phenomena a mechanical method of treatment is absolutely 
necessary. Life must be derived, not from some peculiar principle 
of action, but from a peculiar mode of utilizing the principles 
which govern the whole physical world. From this point of view 
an organic body will appear as a systematic combination of elements, 
which, precisely because they are arranged together in this form, 
will be able, by conforming to fixed laws in their reciprocal 
actions, and by the help of external nature, to pass through 
successive stages of development, and within certain limits to 
preserve the regularity of its course against chance disturbances." 
But then he goes on to add, "This makes me the more sorry 
that Physiologists should regard this view, which embodies the 
necessary regulative principles of all their investigations, as being 
also the last word on the subject, and should exclude every idea 
which is not required for their immediate purposes, from all share 
in their ultimate conclusions. But they will never remove from 
the mind of any unprejudiced person the overwhelming impression 
that the forms of organic Life serve an end ; nor will men ever be 
persuaded that this marvellous fact does not call for explanation 
