!;■ 
 
 iFE THEORIES 
 
 X^ 
 
 RELIGIOUS THOUGHT, 
 
LIBRARY 
 
 BL 240 .B42 Tsfl^^" 
 Beale, Lionel S. 1 
 
 Life theori 
 
 828-1906 
 
 es; their 
 
 influence upon rel 
 
 igious 
 

LIFE THEORIES: 
 
 THEIR 
 
 INFLUENCE UPON RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. 
 
" but if I could understand 
 
 " What you are, root and all, and all in all, 
 " I should know what God and man is." 
 
LIFE THEORIES 
 
 THEIR INFLUENCE 
 
 rpo\ 
 
 RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. 
 
 UONEL S.^BEALE, M.B., F.R.S., 
 
 Felloiv of the Rnyal Culh^e of Physicians; Physician to King's Collet;e Hospital 
 
 and formerly Professor of Physiology and of General and Morbid 
 
 Anatomy in King's College, London. 
 
 WITH SIX COLOURED TLATES. 
 
 LONDON: 
 J. & A. CHURCHILL, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 
 
 rillLADELI'lIIA, LINDSAY AND BLAKISTON, 
 
 1871. 
 
 [All rights reset- •cii.\ 
 
LONDON : 
 HARRISON AND SONS, PRINTERS IN ORDINARY TO IIKR MAJKSTV, 
 
 ST. martin's lank. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In this work I have adduced some of the reasons 
 which have led me to think that the physical doctrine 
 of life is opposed to the development of religious 
 thought and natural theology, and adverse to scien- 
 tific progress. 
 
 It has not been shown that any one of the physical 
 or chemical hypotheses of life yet proposed rests upon 
 the secure foundation of observation and experiment, 
 while on the other hand the phenomena of living 
 beings, open to the observation of all, not only justify 
 the acceptance of a vital theory, but are only in this 
 way to be accounted for. 
 
 Although it has been repeatedly affirmed that the 
 non-living passes by insensible gradations into the 
 living, no example of matter in the supposed transi- 
 tional condition has yet been obtained, while, on the 
 other hand, the facts which lead me to conclude that 
 the difference between the living and the non-living is 
 absolute, have neither been controverted nor explained 
 away. My conclusions are indeed at variance with 
 the views very generally entertained and taught in 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 these days, but the truthfulness of the observations 
 upon which they are based, now extending over a 
 period of nearly twenty years, has not been called in 
 question. 
 
 A portion of the first part of this essay has been 
 printed in the Conteviporary Review for April, 1871, 
 but the argument has since been extended and further 
 illustrated. 
 
 L. S. B. 
 
 61, Grosvenor Sti^eet, 
 May, 1 87 1. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 I. Physical Life-theories and Religious Thought. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Religion and Science ... ... ... ... ... ... ... i 
 
 Premature Concession ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 3 
 
 Influence of Views on the nature of Life upon Religious Thought 4 
 
 Physical Theory of Life incompatible with Religious Thought ... 9 
 
 Life not a consequence of Physical actions only ? ... ... ... 10 
 
 Of Power and Force ... ... ... ... .... ... ... 12 
 
 Self-constructing Properties of Molecules ... ... ... ... 13 
 
 The idea incompatible with the ideas of Providence, Personal Ood, 
 
 and Christianity ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 14 
 
 Failure of attempts to construct Iviving Beings ... ... ... 15 
 
 Failure of Analogical Reasoning, Metaphor and Prophecy ... 15 
 If the Physical Doctrine of Life is accepted, must not the idea of 
 
 God be given up ?... ... ... ... ... ... ... 18 
 
 Advocates of Physical View of Life not active Opponents of 
 
 Religion ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 20 
 
 If modern Theories true, a revolution in Religious Belief must 
 
 occur ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 21 
 
 Most recent conjectures and fancies concerning the Nature and 
 
 Origin of Living Beings ... ... ... ... ... ... 22 
 
 What has been gained by the Physical Hypothesis of Life ? ... 29 
 No Physical Theory of Life yet propounded stands the test of 
 
 careful examination ... ... ... ... ... ... 31 
 
 IT. The Theory of Vitality and Religious Thought. 
 
 Phenomena of Living Matter different from Phenomena of all Non- 
 living Matter ... ... ... ... ... ... ••• ,3^ 
 
 Of the Two States of Matter in Living Beings 40 
 
viii TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Bioplasm or Living Matter .. ... ... ... ... ... 41 
 
 Bioplasm of Cuticular covering of Tongue ... ... ... ... 44 
 
 Bone of Kitten and its Bioplasm ... ... ... ... ... 45 
 
 Skin of Frog ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 46 
 
 Of the fine Nerve Fibres ro mid an Artery ... ... ... ... 52 
 
 Capillaries and Nerve Fibres, Palate of the Frog ... ... ... 53 
 
 Vessels and Nerve Fibres of Mucous Membrane ... ... ... 54 
 
 Large Caudate Nerve Cells ... ... ... ... ... ... 54 
 
 Cells of the Grey Matter of the convolutions of the Brain ... ... 55 
 
 Bioplasm concerned in Mental Nerve-action... ... ... ... 60 
 
 Vital Phenomena. 
 
 Characters of the Bioplasm ... ... ... ... ... ... 63 
 
 Nutrition... ... ... ... ... ... .. ... ... 67 
 
 Bioplasm in Disease ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 69 
 
 Production of Formed Material from Bioplasm ... .. ... 70 
 
 Bioplasm and Formed Matter... ... ... ... ... ... 71 
 
 Objections to the Idea of a Central Force or Power influencing the 
 
 whole Organism ... ... ... ... ... .... ... 72 
 
 Vital Phenomena and Physical Phenomena of a Different Order ... 77 
 
 Vitality 78 
 
 Of the Action of the Bioplasm concerned in Mental Action ... 87 
 
 On the relation of the Non-living and Living to God ... ... 91 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PLATES. 
 
 *** The bioplasm, or livinj: matter, which alone takes part in development and 
 formation, is represented red in all these plates; the vessels blue, and the tissue, or 
 formed material, in ordinary black ink. 
 
 pac;e 
 
 Plate I. — Cutiatlar covering of papilla of tongue, showing bio- 
 plasm and foniied material of the elementary parts at 
 different ages ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 42 
 
 Plate II.— Minute structure of growing bone to illustrate the 
 changes which occur during the fomiation of this tissue, and 
 the important part played by the bioplasts in the process — 
 Portion of skin of frog to show the relation of the various 
 structures to one another, and the bioplasm taking part in the 
 formation of all of them ... ... ... ... ... ... 46 
 
 Plate III. — A part of a ganglion, or nen'e-centre, with its bioplasts 
 — Artery, with muscular fibre cells and nerves — Capillary 
 vessel and nerve fibres — The bioplasts of all these textures are 
 represented... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 5^ 
 
 Plate IV. — Capillary vessels, with their numerous bioplasts antl 
 nerve-fibres, from the mucous membrane covering the epiglottis 
 of the human subject — Large angular and caudate nerve cells 
 from the spinal cord ... . ... ... ... 54 
 
 Plate V. — Nerve cells from the gray matter of the brain of man, 
 sheep, and Guinea-pig, showing Inoplasm, or living matter, 
 and formed material, or ner\'e tissue ... ..- ... ... 5^' 
 
 Plate VI. — Bioplasm of gray matter of brain of man probably ctjii 
 
 cerncd in thouHit ... ... ... ... ... ••• ••• <J- 
 
Part I. 
 PHYSICAL LIFE THEORIES 
 
 AND 
 
 RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. 
 
 Part II. 
 THE THEORY OF VITALITY 
 
 AND 
 
 RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. 
 
"The existence of God, and the Immortahty of the Soul, are not 
 given us as phenomena, as objects of immediate knowledge ; yet, if the 
 phenomena actually given do necessarily require, for their rational 
 explanation, the hypothesis of Immortality and of God, we are assuredly 
 entitled, from the existence of the former, to infer the reality of the 
 latter." — Sir William Hamilton's Lectures — Lecture VII. 
 
PHYSICAL LIFE THEORIES 
 
 AND 
 
 RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. 
 
 F the progress of science is of necessity 
 associated with the decline of religious 
 belief, the hostility of religious persons to 
 science would be pardonable, if not reason- 
 able and justifiable, for it has never been proved that 
 scientific information can, with advantage to the indi- 
 vidual or to society, be substituted for religious teach- 
 ing. Moreover, of a given number of persons, but a 
 small minority would be found capable of gaining real 
 proficiency in any branch of science, while it must be 
 admitted that almost everyone would make at least 
 considerable progress in religious knowledge. Al- 
 though it is an open question whether the character is 
 necessarily or almost certainly improved by the study 
 of science, the influence of religious thought for good 
 in innumerable instances, and at every period of 
 history, will not be seriously disputed. 
 
 Religion and Science. — But is it true that religion 
 and science are hostile ? That reason and faith arc 
 
 B 
 
A UTHORITA TIVE SCIENCE. 
 
 irreconcileable ? That a man who has the gift of 
 science must ever be wanting in the gift of faith ? 
 That the truths of rehgion are parted from. the truths 
 of science, and that he who devotes himself to scien- 
 tific work, can take little interest in, and be little 
 influenced by, religious thought ? 
 
 Many, I fear, would answer these questions affirma- 
 tively. Some would go so far as to say that the ten- 
 dencies of religious thought and the tendencies of 
 scientific thought are in opposite directions, and that 
 every attempt hitherto made to reconcile the teachings 
 of science and religion has failed. Nevertheless I 
 venture to think, and in this work I shall endeavour 
 to give reasons for the conclusion, that the reply to all 
 these questions should be made in the negative. 
 
 Authoritative Science. — Sufficient distinction has 
 not, I think, been drawn by many who devote their 
 lives mainly to religious thought and work, between 
 science, and the statements put forward in her name — 
 between scientific demonstration, and facts said to 
 have been demonstrated by investigations called 
 scientific — between the actual discovery of new truths 
 proved beyond all question, and mere assertions suffi- 
 ciently dogmatic, dictatorial, and positive, but resting 
 upon authority instead of upon evidence. 
 
 Authoritative assertion damages the interests of 
 science, and arrests the progress of truth, for science 
 can never acknowledge any authority whatever. Her 
 truths rest simply upon evidence, and the more care- 
 
PREMA TURE CONCESSION. 
 
 fully and the more minutely the evidence is sifted, 
 the greater is the gain to science. Unfortunately, 
 however, in every stage of scientific progress instances 
 are not wanting in which mere positive assertions 
 have been implicitly believed, and when these have 
 been proved to be erroneous, new assertions as posi- 
 tive have taken their place, to be in their turn refuted 
 and replaced by others. And this must ever be if 
 people persist in accepting scientific statements upon 
 authority alone, and refuse to study the grounds upon 
 which the statements are said to rest 
 
 Premature Concession. — A vague feeling of uncer- 
 tainty has long prevailed in the minds of many highly 
 educated persons with regard to the bearing of recently 
 asserted scientific facts upon the beliefs which consti- 
 tute the very foundations of religion. Rather than 
 take the trouble even to ascertain the meaning of an 
 assertion put forth, not a few accept it at once, and 
 with it the state of mental perplexity which its 
 acceptance involves. But surely it is most necessary 
 that before a new doctrine or a new philosophy is 
 violently opposed, because its influence on religious 
 thought is likely to be prejudicial, or warmly accepted 
 for the very same reason, or for a very different 
 reason, it should be ascertained whether it rests upon 
 demonstrated facts, or is a mere dictum, guess, or 
 conjecture, of some authority. 
 
 I have sometimes suspected that some theologians 
 in these days were prepared to concede too much, 
 
 B 2 
 
INFLUENCE OF VIEWS OF LIFE 
 
 nay, to concede what will eventually prove to be 
 the key of the position, regarded from the intel- 
 lectual side. The proposition seems to have been 
 accepted by many as proved, that the laws govern- 
 ing the living are the same as those which the 7ion- 
 living obey. But such a conclusion cannot reason- 
 ably be entertained at this time, nor is it likely that it 
 will ever be proved to rest upon facts. The chivalrous 
 generosity and large-heartedness of some minds, an 
 intense love for everything that seems to favour pro- 
 gress, a desire to encourage investigation and work, 
 and a natural hatred of narrow-mindedness and party 
 prejudice, have perhaps led some thoughtful persons 
 to accept for demonstrated facts, without the slightest 
 investigation or inquiry, some of the most extraordi- 
 nary statements ever promulgated in the name of 
 truth, and to believe in all seriousness general pro- 
 positions which, regarded from a scientific stand-point, 
 are untenable ; as, for example, " the sun forms living 
 beings," " the lifeless passes by gradations into the 
 living," " the difference between a living thing and a 
 dead one is a difference of degree," " a dead thing 
 may be revivified," and many more quite as astound- 
 ing. Such doctrines rest upon no scientific evidence 
 whatever, and those who believe them receive them 
 upon trust, and do not venture to inquire concerning 
 the facts upon which they are said to rest. 
 
 Influence of Viezvs on tJie Nature of Life iipon 
 Religions Thought. — Of all departments of scientific 
 
UPON RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. 
 
 investigation, the one which concerns itself with the 
 study of living beings is that which is calculated to 
 exert the most serious influence upon religious thought* 
 and it is especially to this I venture to direct attention 
 in this book. It is, indeed, in connection with views 
 concerning the nature of life that the most distinct 
 antagonism between religion and science will be found 
 to obtain. 
 
 Thoughtful men have allowed their judgment to 
 be swayed by what seemed to them to be new dis- 
 coveries of paramount importance, although they 
 have not unfrequently experienced the greatest diffi- 
 culty in grasping the meaning of the terms in which 
 a discovery has been announced, and have not 
 perhaps fully appreciated the consequences which 
 must necessarily flow from the premisses they have 
 accepted. For some years past there has been in» 
 England a powerful current setting in one direction, 
 into which men have allowed themselves to be drawn, 
 against the promptings of their feelings and some- 
 times against the dictates of their reason. They have 
 been told, in language more forcible than convincing, 
 that the facts of science demanded acquiescence, be- 
 cause the facts of science were incontrovertible, that 
 truths established by observation and experiment 
 were of all truths the most real, the most certain, 
 and the most pure. But too frequently the assertions 
 concerning certain so-called facts of science, after 
 being carefully considered and examined, become 
 
INFLUENCE OF VIEWS OF LIFE 
 
 resolved into the vaguest conjectures. Such, Indeed, 
 are many of the statements which have been made 
 about the formative and constructive capacity of force. 
 Energy does not construct or form, although it has 
 been affirmed over and over again that it does form 
 living things, that force constriLcts the worm and forms 
 the bee, and that suns, the fountains of force, resolve 
 themselves into the living beings that people this 
 earth ! But where is the evidence in favour of the 
 constructive power of force t Is it not strange that 
 anyone should maintain that force should be com- 
 petent to construct the marvellous mechanism of a 
 living plant or animal, when he must needs confess 
 that all force is impotent to make a wheel or build a 
 mill ? But force is actually opposed to construction, 
 and before anything can be built up, the tendencies 
 of force must be overcome by formative agency or 
 power. Unless force is first conquered, and then regu- 
 lated and directed, structure will not be evolved. 
 Force may destroy and dissipate, but it cannot build; 
 it may disintegrate, but it cannot fashion ; it may 
 crush, but it is powerless to create. It is doubtful if it 
 would be possible to adduce a dogma more un- 
 founded than the dogma that the sun forms or 
 builds — constructs or resolves itself into anythino- 
 that possesses structure, and is capable of perform- 
 ing definite work of any kind for any purpose. 
 
 Men who have gained a scientific reputation in 
 special departments have not hesitated to repudiate 
 
UrON RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. 
 
 or condemn other branches of knowledge and other 
 lines of inquiry, of the merits of advantages of which 
 they are quite unable to form a correct estimate. 
 
 Physicists and chemists have disparaged microsco- 
 pical inquiry, the remarks they have themselves made 
 proving distinctly enough that they knew nothing of 
 the question upon which they express most confi- 
 dent opinions. Of all departments of knowledge, 
 the physiology of life has been the most unfortunate in 
 this respect, and the most ridiculous statements about 
 the nature of life have been approvingly sanctioned 
 by men of high position in other branches of natural 
 knowledge. Vitality has formed the favourite sub- 
 ject for perorations, and of late years many physical 
 philosophers have concluded a long address, perhaps, 
 on the nature and properties of the non-living, with 
 some eloquent passages about the physical nature of 
 life. Physicists have invaded a province of knowledge 
 which they thought to conquer, but from which they 
 must retire discomfited. They have laid down iron 
 rules which they have been the first to disobey, and 
 have protested loudly about the inexorable logic of 
 facts, w^hile they have themselves utterly discarded 
 all fact — and, revelling in mere rhapsody and fancy, 
 they have tried to convince the unlearned that they 
 were teaching the facts of science. Physicists, with- 
 out having studied the wonderful effects wrought by 
 vitality, have tried hard to represent it as a slave of 
 force, but it has proved, and will ever prove, its 
 
8 PHYSICAL THEORY OF LIFE 
 
 master. Creative power is as far removed as ever 
 from non-constructing force ; and the great life- 
 mystery, in. spite of the efforts and consummate 
 skill of physicists and chemists, remains a mystery 
 as great as when in childhood the longing first arose 
 to inquire into the why and how. 
 
 If life is force, the idea of a Power higher than 
 force seems indeed superfluous. If life is but a form or 
 mode of ordinary force — if the phenomena of living 
 beings are the same in essential nature as the pheno- 
 mena of lifeless matter — if the laws which govern 
 matter alive are the same as those which the non- 
 living and the dead must obey, all thought which 
 carries us beyond the experience of the organs of 
 our senses must be void, profitless, and waste. 
 
 For if by the investigation of matter and its pro- 
 perties a sufficient explanation of the phenomena of 
 life can be obtained, is it not clear that we shall not, 
 in order to explain the facts of life, call in the aid of 
 an hypothesis which involves the existence of power, 
 agency, force, or property altogether distinct from 
 the matter and the ordinary properties of material 
 particles } But if, on the other hand, the phenomena 
 of living beings cannot be fully accounted for by 
 physics and chemistry, then it is a question still 
 open for discussion whether or not life is due to the 
 working of some agency or power distinct from 
 matter, and the idea of a much higher Power capable 
 of influencing all matter may not only be entertained 
 
AND RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. 
 
 without inconsistency, but an additional argument is 
 gained in its support. 
 
 Physical Theory of Life incompatible zuith Religions 
 Thought. — If it were tme that the facts of science 
 really taught that all phenomena peculiar to living 
 beings were in reality only physical and chemical 
 phenomena, the very ground out of which all reli- 
 gious thought springs would be dissipated. For if I 
 was sure that the formation of my body and the 
 action of the living matter within me were certainly 
 due to the properties of the particles of which my 
 ■framework is constructed, how could I believe that I 
 was, nevertheless, designed and created by the power 
 and wisdom of God } If that were so, I should not 
 seem to be nearer to the only sort of Deity admis- 
 sible in such an order of things than the dust I tread 
 upon, from which my body was made, and to which 
 it will return ; or than the wood and clay which may 
 be so wonderfully fashioned by the hands and minds 
 of men — nay, the latter would*"have for me far higher 
 interest than any such Deity could possibly possess. 
 For at best such a power could only affect me through 
 matter, and could not be supposed to possess any sort 
 of relation to me that a being capable of thinking 
 and fashioning would care to acknowledge. I must 
 believe that I was not related to my Maker in i\\\y 
 way distinct or different from that in which tlie stone 
 is related to its Maker. Nay, the stone and I would 
 be particles, perhaps a little inodified, in the same 
 
lo THE IDEA OF A REMOTE 
 
 order of things ; each occupying its place and per- 
 forming its part in this world ; each dependent upon 
 the influences determined by conditions outside it, 
 each subject to be split up into its component mole- 
 cules, to be scattered far and wide, perhaps to be 
 recombined at once into new forms, perhaps to be 
 distributed, and for ages, as cosmic mist. 
 
 Is Life a Consequence of PJiysical Actions only? — 
 Given the sun, gravitation, and all the secondary 
 mighty physical phenomena of nature, thunder, light- 
 ning, wind, rain, dew, and the like, did life follow as a 
 necessmy consequence f Might not the physical con- 
 ditions of our planet as regards light, heat, and 
 moisture, have existed for ever without life having 
 been called forth ? The thunder may be God's voice, 
 but in living things, does not God speak in another 
 voice, and to man's spiritual nature with yet another ? 
 Why are we to accept the dictum of those who assert 
 that the laws which govern the non-living matter, 
 living matter, and the ftiind of man, are the same laws? 
 The two last have nothing in common with the first. 
 Where is the analogy between the inanimate stone 
 and the simplest living thing } Does the stone, like 
 the living particle, convert matter of different com- 
 position into substances like those of which it consists, 
 and then divide and subdivide into little stones .-* 
 Does it grow towards heaven like the tree, against the 
 laws of gravitation } 
 
 The idea of a very remote or self-extinguished Crea- 
 
SELF-EXTINGUISHED CREATOR. n 
 
 io7'. — Nor does it seem to me that I should be raised 
 much higher than the stone among things created, if 
 believing that, although I was really made by force, 
 the workmanship of the sun, the constructing force of 
 the sun which made me sprang direct from God. 
 But if man has been formed by the sun, he at least 
 is certain that he is endowed with powers higher than 
 any the sun possesses, and is a being superior to the 
 sun, in that he can form, and mould, and build, and 
 fashion as he wil). He knows that the sun is mere 
 matter, and is not, like himself, endowed with reason, 
 with power to discover the constitution of the distant 
 suns, and tell the nature of the matter of which they 
 are made. How therefore, knowing this, can man, 
 being so much higher than the mere matter of the 
 sun, submit to acknowledge it or its forces as his 
 Creator? 
 
 And surely few can see much grandeur in the idea 
 that the existing order of things here has resulted from 
 an oscillation of an evolutional wave, which received 
 its first impulse from the Infinite, into which its last 
 undulations will merge. And few, one would think, 
 can derive consolation, satisfaction, or hope from the 
 idea of an All-powerful, who ceased to exert power 
 ere this world was formed, and before the conditions 
 resulting in the evolution of life were unconscious 
 possibilities. Man would take little interest in so 
 remote and indirect a Providence, and would rebel 
 acrainst the acknowledLfment of a self-extinguished 
 
12 POWER AND FORCE. 
 
 Creator, or a God reposing powerless beyond the sun. 
 If it were boldly affirmed that in these latter days 
 the God of the beginning, the great First Cause, had 
 ceased to be, it is doubtful if man could force himself 
 to believe that any lifeless forces or elements were 
 endowed with designing or creative power, for is it pos- 
 sible to conceive of such transcendent powers, except 
 as attributes of an ever-living, ever-acting Infinite ? 
 
 Of Poiver and Force. — I beg the reader to con- 
 sider the vast difference between power, force, and 
 property, for these are quite distinct from one ano- 
 ther. Power is capable of activity ; it may design, 
 arrange, form, construct, build. Property is passive, 
 and belongs to the material particles, and is no more 
 capable of destruction than the particles themselves. 
 Force differs from property, in that its form or mode 
 may be changed or conditioned and assume other 
 forms, and be afterwards restored to the original one. 
 
 Power may cease and vanish, but property is re- 
 tained, and force in one form or other is persistent. 
 Neither matter, nor force, nor property, can wholly 
 disappear; but all order, design, arrangement, guidance, 
 form, structure, construction, may vanish. Power alone 
 imposes upon the material the wonderful order which 
 everywhere manifests itself in nature. The property 
 of the material renders such imposition possible, but 
 does not effect it. Were the particles of our planet dis- 
 tributed in a manner ever so chaotic and meaningless, 
 matter and force might be, grain for grain, foot-pound 
 
SELF-CONSTRUCTING PROPERTIES. 13 
 
 for foot-pound, property for property, as in the exist- 
 ing order of things. Nor could the mighty differences 
 between the supposed and the present condition be 
 expressed in force or property terms. 
 
 But let me not offend those who differ from me by 
 mere words. I care not whether the term power be 
 accepted or discarded in favour of some other word. 
 The name given to the designing, arranging, and govern- 
 ing capacity is a matter of absolute indifference to me. 
 But I cannot allow, without a protest, that the faculty 
 itself should be ignored, and people told that all the 
 phenomena manifested in the material world are to be 
 accounted for by the properties and forces of the 
 material molecules themselves, for that is a dogma 
 which cannot be tenable — a mere dictum of preten- 
 tious self-asserting authority, misleading, confusing, 
 untrustworthy. 
 
 Self-constnicting Properties of Molecules. — The idea 
 that the form and structure of living beings are to be 
 attributed to the properties of the particles of matter 
 of which they are made, and the influences to which 
 these particles are exposed when they come together, 
 is, however, at this very time, nevertheless, seriously 
 entertained and taught. It has indeed been definitely 
 stated, and the statement has been repeated more 
 than once, that the whole " world, living and non- 
 living," has resulted by the "mutual interaction" of 
 the " forces possessed by the molecules of which the 
 primitive nebulosity of the universe was composed." 
 
14 
 
 PROPERTIES OF PARTICLES. 
 
 The sentence following this nebulous assertion shows 
 in what impenetrable mists Mr. Huxley has lost 
 himself. If the above view about primitive nebu- 
 losity be true, he goes on to say, '' it is no less certain 
 that the existing world lay, potentially, in the cosmic 
 vapour ; and that a sufficient intelligence could, from 
 a knowledge of the properties of the molecules of that 
 vapour, have predicted, say the state of the Fauna of 
 Britain in 1869, with as much certainty as one can say 
 what will happen to the vapour of the breath in a cold 
 winter's day." But who cares to learn what a sup- 
 posititious intelligence, having knowledge unknowable, 
 might have predicted concerning the hypothetical 
 molecules of an apocryphal primeval mist, under cir- 
 cumstances which, had they existed, would have ren- 
 dered impossible the existence of the intelligence ? 
 
 The idea incompatible with the ideas of Providence, 
 Personal God, and Christianity. — If the formation and 
 action of our tissues and organs are really due to the 
 properties of the particles constituting the materials 
 of our body, it is difficult to understand what influence 
 a God could be supposed to exert after the particles 
 had been created in the first beginning, and had been 
 endowed with their properties. Docs not such doc- 
 trine, I would ask, strike at the root of the idea of a 
 living God, and aim at accounting for all the pheno- 
 mena of this world by law, independent of will, power, 
 or design.-^ In such a scheme neither a Superintending 
 Providence, nor a Personal God, nor Christianity could 
 
CONSTRUCTION OF LIVING THINGS. 15 
 
 have place. It remains only to ask whether the mind 
 can be satisfied to regard Deity merely as a primeval 
 creative impulse, of which everything that has since 
 happened and will happen is a consequence ; and to 
 inquire further, whether it would be possible for us to 
 draw any distinction between a relationship to a first 
 cause, so very inappreciable, indirect, and remote, 
 and an absence of any relationship whatever. 
 
 Faihwe of Attempts to Construct Living Beings. — 
 According to many, for years past we seem to have 
 been on the eve of discovering the conditions under 
 which the component elements of the organisms of 
 living beings could be made to combine to form the 
 organic compounds, and these compounds made to 
 live. It has indeed been affirmed, over and over again, 
 that the morning of discovery has dawned, nay, that 
 the living has been actually formed direct from the 
 non-living ; but the spontaneous ovum has yet to be 
 exhibited, — the living jelly has yet to be evolved from 
 the laboratory-bred plasma. 
 
 Faihtre of Analogical Reasoning, Metaphor, and 
 Prophecy. — Notwithstanding the most ingenious at- 
 tempts and long-sustained efforts, it has been found 
 impossible to make any form of apparatus, or to 
 obtain any chemical substance which acts like a living 
 body, or which could possibly be mistaken for matter 
 that was alive. Attempts have therefore been made 
 to prove that between certain non-living things and 
 living things there existed some analogy. And while 
 
1 6 FAILURE OF METAPHOR. 
 
 it has been reluctantly admitted, in a vague sort of 
 way, that there is a difference between the living and 
 the non-living, the analogies which had already been 
 demonstrated, justified, it was said, the anticipation 
 that, as science was continually advancing, a time 
 would come when means would be discovered by 
 which the non-living should be made to exhibit the 
 phenomena which are now regarded by some of us as 
 peculiar to the living world. 
 
 As all efforts to make living things failed, it was 
 only natural that those sanguine persons, who had 
 determined that success shall be attained some day, 
 should endeavour to keep hope alive by resorting to 
 metaphor, and calling in the aid of analogical reason- 
 ing. But the argument from analogy has been tre- 
 mendously strained. Life, which arranges and gives 
 to matter form and structure, has been likened to 
 flame, which involves the disintegration of matter, 
 and which destroys all form and structure. The 
 living thing, it has been said, is like the crystal, as if 
 the living thing was at its formation deposited from a 
 solution, and could be dissolved and re-crystallised as 
 often as we will. 
 
 Man has been represented as something between a 
 crystal, which may, by mere change in temperature, 
 be precipitated from, and then dissolved again in, its 
 own mother-liquor, and a clock, that ticks away its 
 existence till its works are worn out or are choked by 
 dust, or ceases more suddenly from its time-marking 
 
rl NAL GY A XD PR OPHE CY. , , 
 
 labours, in consequence of the breaking of the spring, 
 or the falling of its weights, when its works are thrown 
 into the melting pot, and there is an end of that par- 
 ticular clock. 
 
 A living creature, it has been affirmed, is analogous 
 to a machine, which goes when it is wound up, or when 
 water is placed in its boiler and fire in its grate, as if 
 the fire could be re-lighted after it had once gone out, 
 and a living niacJiiiic be made to go again after it 
 had once stopped. But there is not even an analogy 
 between a machine and a living thing in construction. 
 For is not each portion of the machine first made and 
 finished, and then fitted carefully to others, when 
 the machine becomes complete, and is at last ready for 
 work ? But work construction of the living machine 
 is carried out in a very different way, and upon ver}- 
 different principles. All the several parts are con- 
 nected from the very first. Each portion is developed 
 in its proper place, and requires no fitting or adapta- 
 tion whatever. Every part is evolved out of the 
 structureless, or rather seems to evolve itself Neither 
 tools nor any kind of mechanism are concerned in its 
 production. 
 
 It has been shown that from all lix-ino" thincr^ an 
 albuminous substance may be obtained. Tliere- 
 fore, it has been affirmed, living matter is albu- 
 minous^ — as if there was no difference between li\inL^ 
 
 o 
 
 matter and the albuminous substances which result 
 after the matter has ceased to live. Still it was found 
 
 C 
 
J 8 FAILURE OF PROPHECY. 
 
 necessary in some instances to admit that a guiding 
 or directing influence of some kind did exist. As it 
 had been shown that force could not guide matter, 
 the difficulty was solved by affirming that matter 
 guided the force. But of course no explanation of 
 what was meant by the phrase '' guiding physical 
 forces," was offered, and if anyone inquired he 
 would probably have been told that his question was 
 frivolous. 
 
 Some philosophers, distinguished for their zeal to 
 establish the physical doctrine of life, have imagined 
 that they possessed the gift of prophecy. Though 
 fact and law and logic had their advantages, proof 
 of their view, which was not attainable now, would 
 certainly be forthcoming at some not very distant 
 period of time. Everything tended towards a 
 physical explanation of vital phenomena, and it 
 was affirmed that the tendency would continue. 
 But prophecies and tendencies have never exerted 
 much influence upon scientific discovery. The 
 scientific man who prophecies, forsakes the straight 
 path into which he has been led by observation and 
 experim^ent, and thereby acknowledges his mistrust 
 in the scientific principles in which he professed to 
 believe, if indeed he does not take the path which 
 leads towards the doctrine of infallibility, so fatal 
 to the law of progress. 
 
 If the Physical Doctrine of Life is accepted, iiuist 
 not the idea of God he given np ? — If the physical 
 
PHYSICAL THEORIES AND RELIGION. 19 
 
 view be accepted, surely the abandonment of the idea 
 of a God, of Divinity of every kind, of immortaHty, 
 and free agency, is only a question of time. And 
 yet it seems scarcely credible that any one could have 
 seriously concluded that ere long physics would 
 replace the old beliefs, and that, although compara- 
 tively few of us were yet sufficiently intelligent or 
 were too bigoted to renounce the simple faith imbibed 
 in our childhood, as our knowledge increased our 
 prejudices would wane, and we should at last discard 
 religion altogether, and accept as a substitute for it 
 faith in the omnipotence of force. 
 
 But are not such ideas as Omniscience, Omnipo- 
 tence, design and power, as far removed from physical 
 philosophy, with its immutable laws and nccessar}' 
 sequences, as is the idea of a personal God ? 
 
 If the formation of a living organism had been an 
 exceptional or only a very occasional phenomenon, 
 is it not exceedingly probable that it would have been 
 regarded as miraculous ? The frequency of its 
 occurrence, and our familiarity with the fact of the 
 continual formation of living things, alone prevent 
 the operation from being attributed to preternatural 
 agency. Regarded from a merely ph)-sico-chemical, 
 or, as some would say, scientific stand-point, the pro- 
 duction of every living thing is indeed preternatural, 
 inasmuch as the process cannot be explained by any 
 laws of nature yet discovered. The physical philoso- 
 pher may triumphantly exclaim, " fact I know, and 
 
 C 2 
 
20 EFFECTS OF MODERN THEORIES 
 
 law I know." But his philosophy does not yet enable 
 him to explain how lifeless matter comes to live, so 
 he cuts the knot by declaring that force is, and that 
 life other than force cannot be. 
 
 Advocates of Physical Viezv of Life not active 
 Opponents of Religion. — It cannot be maintained that 
 those who support the physical theory of life have 
 taken any active part in opposing religion, nor 
 have physical and chemical doctrines been advanced 
 as antagonistic to religious thought. It would ap- 
 pear rather as if the advocates of these views only 
 desired that they should be taught far and wide, and 
 that it should be left to the people instructed to dis- 
 cover whether the enlightened doctrine was consistent 
 or not with their religious prejudices. Still, it must, 
 I think, be obvious to thoughtful persons, that the 
 view that man is a mere machine, constructed by 
 force, whose structure and actions depend upon 
 the properties of the material particles of which 
 his body is composed, and th-e influence of physical 
 agencies upon these, is scarcely reconcileable with the 
 idea that man is made in the image of God, and that 
 man holds or can ever hold communion with his 
 Maker. 
 
 But theories in high favour in these days, and 
 very widely taught, rest upon the assumption that an 
 interval of time, so great as to be reckoned by ages, 
 and far beyond computation, separates the existing 
 living creation from its Creator. God is removed 
 
UPON RELIGIOUS BELIEF. 2 i 
 
 farther and farther from us, until the conception is 
 utterly lost in the dim twilight of the infinitely remote 
 beginning, and man is left alone, by unintelligent 
 conditions, in a wilderness of unconscious molecules, 
 himself the victim of laws which his atoms are forced 
 to obey, while he is unconscious of the terms im- 
 posed, and utterly unable to find them out. Man, the 
 only creature able to invent and design, is no more 
 than one of an infinite number of expressions of the 
 stuff he feeds upon, a mere transient image, of far less 
 importance than the active everlasting indestructible 
 atoms of his body, which have directly emanated from 
 the infinitely remote and self-extinguished first cause, 
 the origin and source of all. 
 
 If modern TJicorics true, a revolution in Religious 
 Belief must occur. — But it is certain that if the doc- 
 trines w^hich have been lately so strongly adx'ocated 
 had been proved to rest upon assure foundation, a 
 complete and wide-spread revolution in religious belief 
 would have occurred. If the discovery of the way in 
 which the non-living can be directly converted into the 
 living, should at any time be made, a might}' change 
 in thought will indeed be inaugurated. A change in 
 philosophy, greater than has ever taken place, would 
 in that case commence, nor would it cease to pro- 
 gress until every old world view had given place to 
 new ideas. Such a discovery would be regarded, and, 
 I venture to think, rightly regarded, as a new revela- 
 tion. 
 
2 2 MOST RECENT CONJECTURES 
 
 If a particle of living matter, not more than 
 1 0^0 0^^"^ *^^ ^^ \vlq\\ in diameter, were made in the 
 laboratory out of non-living matter — if it lived and 
 moved, and grew and multiplied, I confess my belief 
 in "the spiritual nature of my faculties" would be 
 severely shaken. Many, whose opinion is entitled to 
 the greatest respect, would, I know, be inclined to 
 answer, that a man who rested all on such an accident 
 of scientific discovery as this, could have no faith. 
 But would anyone who had formed a true conception 
 of the nature and attributes of a living particle, 
 believe that there is the slightest probability of such 
 a particle ever being manufactured } Each step in 
 investigation seems to separate such a theoretical 
 possibility farther and farther from the real and actual. 
 Of course it will be remarked, ** it is nevertheless 
 possible that a living particle may be made some 
 day." But can it be proved to be impossible that a 
 whale or an elephant should be constructed out of the 
 non-living at some future time } 
 
 Most recent conjectitres and fancies concerning the 
 Nature and Origin of Living Beings. — Quite recently 
 speculations concerning the mechanical nature of 
 vital actions have been supplemented by vague con- 
 jectures about the universal distribution of spirit, and 
 the union between spirit and matter. The matter 
 may be so very attenuated and minutely divided, that 
 it is quite impossible to conceive further attenuation 
 and division, without losing altogether the conception 
 
AND FANCIES ON LIFE. 23 
 
 of matter. For it would appear that many cubic 
 leagues of the matter united with its spirit would not 
 turn the scale of the most delicate balance. 
 
 Whether the *' spirit" of 1870 is some new mode ot 
 force capable of assuming the form of Jicat or niotion, 
 or modified force of another kind, or an agency alto- 
 gether distinct from any force yet discovered — an 
 actual, tangible spirit, evolved in the course of new- 
 observations and experiments not yet communicated 
 to us, or a mere fiction emanating from the fancy of a 
 privileged spirit, has yet to be ascertained. The spirit 
 in question has, however, been associated with matter, 
 at an immense height above the earth, and for a \-er}- 
 long period of time, — with the matter constituting the 
 blue sky, which, like the undifferentiated primeval 
 mist out of which- worlds are formed, is, we are told, 
 redolent of life. How the fact has been ascertained 
 is not stated, but every statement advanced by the 
 physicist rests upon the inexorable logic of facts, so 
 perhaps facts are forthcoming. It would, howe\er, be 
 interesting to have the evidence in detail which proves 
 that life is abundant in the blue sky, for e\'en the " eye 
 of intellect" is scarcely "hard and sharp" enough to 
 see the latent life amongst such misty attenuated 
 spirit-matter. Nor can it be supposed that by the 
 most ingenious mechanical contrivance which the ph\- 
 sicist could devise, could we succeed in obtaining even 
 the smallest trace of blue sky for physical or chemical 
 examination in the laborator}'. Only the wildest fanc}' 
 
24 SPIRIT AND MATTER. 
 
 would suggest for an instant that what is termed life 
 could exist up there. The latent life of the blue sky 
 must at any rate be very latent indeed, and it must 
 be a different 7node of life from tlie mortal form met 
 with here. But these questions will perhaps be con- 
 sidered when further inquiries into the nature of blue 
 sky-matter have been made and tlie results commu- 
 nicated. 
 
 Although the sky-matter is m such a ver},- minute 
 state of division that the whole belonging to our globe 
 might be packed in a snuff-box, all the philosophy, 
 poetry, science, and art of a fiiUtre agevcm^t, it is con- 
 fidently afifirmed, be latent in it. Whether the 
 spirit of the blue sky matter is a different mode or 
 foiTn of the same spirit that is at work in the living 
 matter of the surface of the earth, or a different kind of 
 spirit altogether, seems to be still open to discussion. 
 
 It is somewhat difficult for any ordinary work- 
 ing living spirit to track his way through the 
 attenuated mist-science which has been recently 
 evolved from the physical imaginations of privileged 
 spirits. And it is doubtful if much will be gained 
 on the part of the mere observer, fact-hunter, or 
 experimenter by the most careful examination of 
 " the idea of primeval union between spirit and 
 matter," since its author seems to have experienced 
 so much difficulty in making his meaning clear, that 
 he has been obliged to make use of an extract from 
 the marriage service to illustrate his view of the 
 
MICROSCOPE LIMIT. 25 
 
 mode of union which prevails, and to attest his in- 
 dignation at the idea of the possibiUty of the con- 
 nection between spirit and matter ever being severed 
 by a power so feeble as that of man. 
 
 With reference to living matter, physicists do per- 
 mit us to teach that this is structureless, and even 
 Dr. Tyndall would probably for the present tolerate 
 the view that no machinery, either molecular or of any 
 other kind, which would enable him to account for 
 the phenomena invariably manifested by living matter, 
 can be discovered by the microscope. But such a diffi- 
 culty is only apparent. It cannot, says the lecturer, " be 
 too distinctly borne in mind that between the micro- 
 scope limit and the true ( !) molecular limit there is 
 room for infinite permutations and combinations." 
 But, unfortunately, he knows nothing about the micro- 
 scope limit, nor the tr?(c vioIcc?i/ar limit, nor the I'oom 
 between the two, nor the permutations, nor the combi- 
 nations. Here, then, is an excellent example of the 
 physical-fact logic of one who has long maintained 
 that physics will account for vital phenomena. But, 
 strange as it may appear, this authority is at last 
 forced to admit that he has called in the aid of his 
 imagination, and some of his pupils may be led to 
 teach that there is more science to be learnt in the 
 realms of fancy and in dream-land than by observation 
 and experiment. The attempt to restrict the use k:>{ 
 the imagination to "privileged spirits" only, does not 
 indicate a generous or philosophical disposition. 
 
2 6 FACTS BE YOND INVES TIG A TION. 
 
 Dr. Tyndall's argument against the microscope may 
 be put thus. It is certain that many facts remain undis- 
 covered beyond the microscope Hmit, and if these 
 apocryphal facts were discovered they might justify 
 conclusions different from those already deduced from 
 the facts of observation. In other words, facts which 
 can be demonstrated are of little value or importance, 
 because beyond the limits of investigation may be 
 some unascertained facts which, if they could be 
 discovered, might be found to outweigh the actual 
 facts. 
 
 It so happens that certain facts already demon- 
 strated by the microscope, but which Dr. Tyndall 
 will not acknowledge, are more than sufficient to 
 controvert the hypothesis he has unfortunately so 
 widely and so energetically taught. These facts of 
 microscope observation and investigation are well 
 known to many observers, and the bearing of them has 
 been explained in language which, though less forcible, 
 is perhaps not less intelligible than that in which the 
 fancy facts of the imagination have been introduced 
 to the public. 
 
 There are surely few scientific facts likely to be of 
 greater value in the education of young people of both 
 sexes than those elucidated by the aid of the micro- 
 scope, but it unfortunately happens that the general 
 conclusions which the pupil would arrive at from 
 microscope studies would be likely to lead him to 
 reject the physical hypotheses of life, and to convince 
 
// yPO THESIS OF E VOL UTION. 2 7 
 
 him that these were incompetent to exphiin the facts 
 of observation. 
 
 In the region beyond the microscope limit, says 
 Dr. T}'ndall, " the poles of the atoms are arranged, 
 that tendency is given to their powers, so that when 
 the poles and powers have free action, and proper 
 stimulus in a suitable environment, the\' determine 
 first the germ, and afterwards the complete organism." 
 My physical knowledge is not sufficient to enable 
 me to understand this, but it may be calculated to 
 convey much real information to the people. Per- 
 haps it is not surprising that one who holds such 
 views should believe, and endeavour to make others 
 accept the doctrine, that ''the human mind itself — 
 emotion, intellect, will, and all their phenomena — 
 were once latent in a fiery cloud." " Many who hold 
 the hypothesis of natural evolution," says Dr. T\ndall, 
 " would probably assent to the position that at the 
 present moment all our philosophy, all our poetry, all 
 our science, all our art — Plato, Shakespeare, Newton, 
 and Da Vinci — ^are potential in the fires of the sun." 
 But probably a long course of training would be in- 
 sufficient to enable any one to assent to this position, 
 unless he had had the advantage of being born a privi- 
 leged spirit. 
 
 It is very well for authority to exclaim, " Let 
 us reduce, if i^'c can ( !), the visible phenomena of 
 life to mechanical attractions and repulsions," let 
 us cast *'the term 'vital force' from our vocabular)^" 
 
28 NOTHING GAINED BY 
 
 and so on ; but though he and others have the will to 
 do all this, and full confidence in their prospects of 
 success, the attempt has been so far a failure. Life 
 cannot be reduced to mechanical attractions and re- 
 pulsions, nor can any attractions and repulsions be 
 made to imitate the phenomena of life. Dr. Tyndall 
 may cast any word he pleases from his vocabulary, 
 but it may nevertheless remain in the world's vo- 
 cabulary as long as the thing which it signifies con- 
 tinues to exist. 
 
 No doubt many scientific men desire above all 
 things that people should believe that life is only 
 physical change, but as they cannot bring forward 
 evidence to convince the reason, they seem to be 
 trying hard to gain assent by the aid of strong 
 assertions, by a little gently expressed contempt for 
 other views, and occasionally by a dexterous effort 
 violently to overwhelm, or silence, or extinguish their 
 opponents by force. The most conspicuous member 
 of this class of "privileged spirits " speaks of a student 
 of natural knowledge as a " microsgopist, ignorant 
 alike of philosophy and biology," and belonging to 
 a college " famous for orthodoxy."* It is desirable 
 to examine very carefully the dogmatic assertions of 
 spirits who consider themselves privileged to employ 
 this mode of gaining converts, and enforcing their own 
 principles. 
 
 * '* Essays on the Use and Limit of the Imagination in Science," 
 second edition, page 49. 
 
PHYSICAL LIFE THEORIES. 29 
 
 What has been gained by the Physical Hypothesis of 
 Life ? — For many years past the advocates of various 
 physical doctrines of Hfe have been encouraged 
 in every possible way. A large section of the public, 
 it appears, has desired to be taught such views. The 
 statements have been heartily welcomed by the most 
 advanced writers in the periodical literature of our 
 time, who have hailed vague assertions as brilliant 
 discoveries. The merest shadow which appeared to 
 tell in favour of a material hypothesis has been re- 
 peated, embellished, and forced into notoriety; while 
 researches, in the course of which facts have been 
 discovered which seemed favourable to other hypo- 
 theses, have been rejected with contempt, or ignored. 
 The supporters of physical doctrines of life have 
 assisted one another, fought for one another, and 
 praised one another. They have exhibited such 
 determination, and have employed such strong 
 language, as to intimidate many of those who differ 
 from them. Consequently their views have been but 
 little questioned, and, for the most part, instead of 
 being subjected to searching criticism, have been 
 praised, and in no doubtful terms. Physicists have 
 of late been high in popular favour, and have in fact 
 enjoyed every advantage which the most zealous 
 partisans of a cause could desire. But what have they 
 effected ? What solid advantage has the public 
 gained by their teaching, carried on in the most 
 zealous manner for twenty years ? Have they sue- 
 
30 
 
 THE " TIMES'' ON LIFE. 
 
 ceeded in establishing their principles, or are they 
 likely to succeed in doing so within any reasonable 
 period of time ? Are their conclusions accepted, 
 or their arguments respected by careful thoughtful 
 persons ? 
 
 I have already endeavoured to reply to some of 
 these questions, but a few words as to the results pro- 
 duced by physical hypotheses may not be out of place 
 here. I need only refer to some observations in a 
 leading article in the leading journal of this country (?) 
 for September 19th, 1870. These will enable us 
 to form some idea of the effects of twenty years' 
 active advocacy of such hypotheses upon the minds 
 even of highly intelligent persons. The " Times " 
 tells the British public that the researches of natural 
 pJiilosopJiers seem to show that all the world, or at 
 least all living things, are nothing but large boxes 
 containing an infinite mmiber of little boxes one zuithin 
 the other, and that the least and tiniest box of all covc- 
 tains the '^ germ!'' Now, if for germ we substitute 
 *' intelligence," and look upon each of the boxes as 
 a new layer of conjecture, successively applied to im- 
 prison more and more securely the understanding, 
 already effectually shut up in box number one, we shall 
 get a not inapt illustration of the influence the new 
 philosophy has had upon the mind of the writer of the 
 article, and possibly also upon the minds of many will- 
 ing and enthralled disciples. Perhaps the writer was 
 the same enthusiast whose words have been quoted 
 
PHYSICAL HYPOTHESES. 31 
 
 by Dr. Tyndall under the head of " Pros and Cons." 
 " We saw in imagination the victory of conscience and 
 reason, the emancipation of a soul, the new birth of 
 an intelligence," and so on.* 
 
 Those who attentively study the expositions of the 
 physical school, will find that, instead of facts, hypo- 
 thesis has been piled upon hypothesis, and assertion 
 heaped upon assertion, the whole resting upon a basis 
 of continually shifting assumption. Not even the 
 words and phrases used in enunciating the physical 
 doctrines of vitality are permitted to retain precisely 
 the same meaning throughout one single communica- 
 tion. Confusion succeeds confusion. There is, how- 
 ever, that one idea — that the living and the non-living 
 are one, and are influenced by physical forces only — 
 which ever brightly shines through the mists of the 
 modern nebulous philosophy, and illumines its 
 attendant satellites. This all obey, and around it all 
 revolve. 
 
 No physical tJicojy of L ifc yet propounded stmids the 
 test of careful exaininatiou. — In my work on " Proto- 
 plasm, or Matter, Life, and Mind," published some 
 months since, I have examined several physical theories 
 of life which have received many advocates, and have 
 
 * But alas, Icmpora inutottturl Ere seven months have gone, another 
 writer in the "Times" sees fit to complain of the "unscientific 
 enthusiasm " with which Dr. Tyndall had dilated on the use of the 
 imagination in science, and with stem disapprobation ousts the autumnal 
 hymn of praise. 
 
2 2 FALLACIES OF 
 
 been most warmly supported during the last twenty 
 years. Not one of them., however, is found to stand the 
 test of careful critical analysis. Each breaks down, and 
 completely, upon examination, and the last proposed, 
 and perhaps the most pretentious, is the weakest of 
 them all. Many are so obviously inconsistent with 
 facts known to almost everyone, that it is wonderful 
 such notions should have been .seriously advanced. 
 After reviewing these hypotheses, the critic will be 
 astonished that so many doctrines should have been put 
 forward in so short a time in support of the physical 
 view of life. He is almost forced to conclude that 
 their authors must have had some strong motive for 
 endeavouring to make people believe that a physical 
 hypothesis in some shape or other must be received, and 
 that no other explanation was possible. In their remarks 
 upon vital physics, there is a total absence of that 
 philosophical indifference which distinguishes the same 
 writers when discussing some other matters. As soon 
 as they enter upon the vital question, they assume the 
 tone of the advocate, of the proselytizer, of the zealot, 
 and to such energy everything must yield. They put 
 before the reader only the arguments which seem to tell 
 in favour of the doctrine they teach, and the importance 
 of these is usually much exaggerated. The view must 
 needs be supported by forced similes, overstrained 
 analogies, and metaphors calculated to absorb the atten- 
 tion of the reader, and to interfere with his impartial 
 consideration of the question. Not unfrequently the 
 
PHYSICAL IIYPOTIIKSIS. ,, 
 
 physiciil advocate excites the flagging interest of his 
 pupils by an affirmation, a protest, a prophecy, or a de- 
 claration of his individual infallible conviction and be- 
 lief. Unproven and unprovable assertions have been 
 ad-vanced overand over again, until it becomes tiresome 
 to notice them.^ The fallacy of the crystal argument 
 has been many times exposed during the last hundred 
 years, but there it stands in all its fictitious strength, 
 in the very last work written in favour of the hapless 
 spontaneous generation doctrine. Writers on the 
 physical force side not unfrequently speak with 
 contempt of the views of their opponents, while it is 
 utterly impossible to get them to acknowledge that 
 their own assertions should be subjected to any exa- 
 mination whatever, because, according to them, the 
 physical view only is to be received. Some physical 
 authorities are impatient of criticism, avoid debate, 
 announce their views in sermons, and seem to be unable 
 to distinguish between preaching and teaching. Objec- 
 tions which they cannot answer they afifect to despise ; 
 and, instead of mentioning the terms of the particular 
 objections to which they refer, account opposition 
 
 * The sun "prepares tlie food which supplies our frames witli energy 
 as well as with that delicate tissue which is essential to our exi>tencc," is 
 an example of the way physicists commonly state the case. They then 
 go on to remark that the sun is a fire, forgetting how incorrect it W(ndd 
 be to talk of a fire " preparing" our dinners or the latter supj)Iying us 
 with nerve and muscle and bone. Physicists should really study the 
 structure and mode of growth of tissues before they talk of their prepa- 
 ration by the sun or speak of the great luminary as a creator. 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 UNFAIR STATEMENT OF THE 
 
 " fri\olous." Their plan of treating those who differ 
 from them is Hke that of the boy who throws a stone 
 or two, and then runs away. 
 
 But if any form of the physical doctrine of life had 
 been proved to be true, or had been shown to be based 
 upon some sort of trustworthy evidence, or had 
 upon careful examination even appeared plausible, 
 it would undoubtedly have been right to have inquired 
 very carefully whether religious views could any 
 longer be considered defencible. No one will deny 
 that belief in any of the fanciful hypotheses of the 
 last ten years is consistent with the display of virtues, 
 called " Christian," though many are doubtful whether 
 the physical doctrine is not inconsistent with a belief 
 in the evidences of Christianity. But it has certainly 
 to be shown that the evidence adduced in favour of 
 physical views of life is strong enough to disturb, ever 
 so slightly, the old foundations of Christian faith. 
 
 If many of the modern hypotheses concerning the 
 nature of life were true, or even tended towards truth, 
 it must be admitted their influence would be detri- 
 mental to religious thought. Indeed religious thought 
 in the sense in which the term has been generally 
 understood would probably soon be of the past. 
 
 The advocates of some of these doctrines appear 
 to consider that the fancies they propound are to 
 take the place of religious beliefs, and to supplant 
 them, and are to form the basis of some new relieion 
 of the future. But it is not only as regards views 
 
ARGUMENT FOR THYSICAL V] FAV. 3^ 
 
 concerning the nature of life that modern science aims 
 at taking a very exalted place in human hopes and 
 aspirations, for does not she claim to be able to solve 
 with precision problems the solution of which no form 
 of religion has hitherto ventured to do more than 
 suggest, as it were, vaguely, diffidently, and doubt- 
 fully ? Such, for example, as the mode of origin 
 and formation of the world, the causes of the early 
 changes upon its surface, the origin and nature of all 
 living things, the precise relation of man to other 
 beings, the end of all. 
 
 Every form of physical hypothesis involves the 
 conviction on the part of its advocate that the evi- 
 dence we possess justifies the belief that the present 
 phenomena of existence are but a consequence of 
 antecedent physical changes, these of others, and so 
 on, as it were, in a chain, link succeeding link, up to 
 the very first, which originated in the beginning. Ikit 
 the evidence hitherto advanced in favour of such a 
 view is most inconclusive. 
 
 But is it not a fact of profound significance, that 
 nothing whatever has been proved concerning the phy- 
 sical nature of the changes which immediately precede 
 the production of a particle oi secretion or of tissue in 
 any living organism whatever } The changes are said 
 to be molecular, but, what is molecular } and what i)re- 
 cedes the occurrence of the supposed molecular change } 
 Those who pretend to be able to tell us all about our 
 origin from a fiery cloud in a remote past, are unable 
 
 D 2 
 
36 LAW AND EVOLUTION. 
 
 to inform us of the nature of the changes occurring in 
 any part of one of the multitudes of Hving beings 
 around us, and Avhich changes are now proceeding 
 from moment to moment under our very eyes. They 
 tell us nothing of what takes place in the matter we 
 can study and investigate, and expect us to receive 
 without question the extravagant assertions they make 
 concerning the changes which occurred in the prime- 
 val mist out of which our planet, with everything 
 upon it, has, according to their statement, been 
 formed. Not only so, but they do their best to sup- 
 press all theorizing and speculation concerning pre- 
 sent life which does not happen to chime in with 
 their dismal fancies concerning the past and future 
 changes of their material molecules, and their melan- 
 choly views about evolution by what they call law^ 
 without any kind of superintending, or willing or de- 
 signing, directing or governing power. 
 
THE THEORY OF VITALITY 
 
 AND 
 
 RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. 
 
 fT has been shown that the acceptance of 
 any of the physical theories of life hitherto 
 proposed, would involve the necessity of 
 very serious alterations in our views con- 
 cerning religion, and that if the physical doctrine of 
 vitality could be proved to rest upon any basis of 
 truth, the old foundations of religious thought, which 
 were not completely destroyed, would have to be 
 entirely reconstructed. 
 
 We have now to consider whether the theory of 
 vitality to which one is led by a careful stud}' of the 
 changes occurring during the development and growth 
 of every kind of living being known, will in an\' way 
 affect the religious beliefs which have been entertained 
 for many centuries by the best and wisest among men. 
 In the first place, it is necessary to state the theory 
 and the grounds on which it rests. The doctrine of 
 vitality, which the results of careful observation have 
 led me to accept, involves the conclusion that living 
 matter of every kind and description, and at every 
 
VITAL POWER. 
 
 period of life, is altogether different in its essential 
 nature from any kind of non-living matter whatever, 
 even so very different that there is a total absence of 
 any analogy between the properties peculiar to the 
 living matter and any properties known in connection 
 with the non-living. The transcendent difference is 
 not due to chemical composition or to physical con- 
 stitution or property, but to the presence and activity 
 of a power which cannot, under any circumstances, be 
 developed from matter that has not been made to 
 live by the influence of that which is already living. 
 
 My investigations have been conducted in the hope 
 that, from a careful study of the character of the 
 acts performed, I might succeed in drawing an in- 
 ference concerning the nature of the unknown power 
 that effects the wonderful changes which are inex- 
 plicable by any known laws, and cannot be accounted 
 for by any material agencies, properties, or forces. 
 
 PJienomcna of Living Matter different from Pheno- 
 mena of all Non-livi7ig Matter. — Notwithstanding all 
 that has h^^xv asserted, over and over again, to the con- 
 trary, it has been proved conclusively that the pheno- 
 mena of the simplest living thing are essentially 
 different from those of non-living matter, and cannot 
 be imitated, and that the living does not emanate 
 from the non-living, or pass into it by gradations. 
 Life is no mere sum of ordinary forces, nor does vital 
 action result from material changes alone. It cannot 
 be shown that the matter of the world and its mate- 
 
NO N- VITAL PHENOMENA. 39 
 
 rial forces necessarily give rise to the development of 
 life. We may, therefore, still regard life as transcend- 
 ing mere matter and its forces — a later gift of an All- 
 Wise Omnipotence. 
 
 The tiniest speck of living matter exhibits no 
 structure to account for its actions, and it contains no 
 machinery. It belongs to a system altogether dif- 
 ferent from the mechanical world. It is not in the 
 least degree like a clock, for no two of its * ticks ' are 
 alike. Every one of its molecules makes its own 
 wheels and cranks and springs and pendulum, and 
 sets itself going and winds itself up, and makes new 
 clocks, and in a moment, as perfect and as powerful 
 and as strong as the parent, and all this though com- 
 pletely destitute of works or niachincry of any kind. 
 Ahd there are millions of such molecules in the most 
 minute parts of every living organism. Many of 
 them acting in harmony, now tending one wa>', now 
 another ; now appearing to obey gravitation, now 
 moving, and with equal velocity, in defiance of the 
 great law. To compare a living thing witli a clock is, 
 then, misleading, and it is perversely misleading. The 
 molecules of matter that is alive are arranged as they 
 were never before arranged. Elements which ha\'e 
 the strongest affinity for one another arc separated 
 from their combinations, and perhaps made to combine 
 with elements with which they have no natural ten- 
 dency to unite ; and all this is effected, not as we see 
 it done in the laboratory by the skilful chemist after 
 
40 
 
 TM^V ST A TES OF MA TTER. 
 
 prolonged experience and with the aid of complex 
 contrivances, but silently, and, as it were, by a fiat, 
 without any apparatus whatever. 
 
 Of the Two States of Matter in L iving Beings. — 
 Some years ago, I obtained evidence which convinced 
 me that the substance of the bodies of all things living 
 w^as composed of matter in two states ; and I showed 
 that the truly vital phonomena, nutrition, grozut/i, and 
 multiplication, were manifested by one of the two 
 kinds of matter, while the other was the seat of 
 physical and chemical changes only. From observa- 
 tions I was led to conclude, that of any living thing, 
 but a part of the matter of which it was constituted, 
 w^as really living at any moment. In the case of 
 adult forms of the higher animals and man, indeed 
 only a very small portion of the total quantity 'of 
 their body-matter is alive at any period of existence. 
 
 These views met with little favour at the time, but 
 have since been accepted by many. The facts upon 
 which my arguments were based have not been dis- 
 turbed by those who are opposed to my views. It 
 has been asserted by some that the distinction be- 
 tween the living and non-living matter of a living 
 being could not be sustained, and by others that such 
 a distinction was of no importance at all, if it could be 
 established. 
 
 Certain authorities have most positively affirmed 
 that the living differs from the non-living only in degree, 
 and that the non-living passes by gradations into the 
 
LIVING AND FORMED. ^j 
 
 living, but they appeal to the imagination for the facts 
 upon which their assertion is founded. Between the 
 living and the non-living they say there is no essential 
 difference — no difference save in the rate at which the 
 physical and chemical changes are carried on. Any 
 one might as well attempt to prove that the living 
 state and the dead state were different degrees of one 
 and the same state. But the living is not the lifeless, 
 and it has been shown that matter in the former con- 
 dition may be positively distinguished from matter 
 in the latter state, even in the case of extremely minute 
 particles in which living matter and matter that has 
 ceased to live, and matter that is about to live, are 
 associated together within a very small area. 
 
 Bioplasm or Living Matter. — It must be carefully 
 borne in mind, that the living matter or bioplasm in 
 which wonderful changes occur as long as its life 
 lasts (which changes cannot be explained by physics 
 and chemistry), is not a substance very sparingly 
 distributed, and only occasionally to be separated 
 from the living beings and studied, but it is to be 
 found almost everywhere. It can be examined at 
 any time, and the principal and most remarkable 
 phenomena can be demonstrated with the aid of a 
 -pLj-th of an inch object-glass magnifying 700 dia- 
 meters. There is not a living being \\ hich docs not 
 contain bioplasm, and whose structure, composition, 
 and actions do not depend upon it. There is not at 
 any period of life, in health or in disease, a portion of 
 
42 LIVING MATTER, BIOPLASM. 
 
 any tissue of man's body the size of a pin's head, 
 with perhaps the single exception of the teeth of the 
 adult and in old age, that does not contain some of 
 this living matter or bioplasm in which purely vital 
 pJienouiciia take place. Nor is there an action cha- 
 racteristic of living beings, at any period of their 
 existence, in which this bioplasm does not play an 
 all-important part. The germ at the earliest period 
 is composed of it almost entirely, and from the 
 original bioplasmic germ-mass results the infinite 
 number of bioplasts which subsequently take part in 
 the formation of the several tissues and organs. 
 
 Every tissue may be divided anatomically into 
 elementary parts. Each elementary part consists of 
 the living matter or bioplasm^ and the lifeless formed 
 matter (cell-wall, envelope, tissue, intercellular sub- 
 stance, periplastic matter) produced at the moment of 
 the death of the particles of the first. Formed matter 
 accumulates in the tissues as age advances, and thus 
 interferes with the free access of nutrient matter to 
 the bioplasm. 
 
 As we grow old the proportion of the living to the 
 lifeless matter of the organism becomes less and less, 
 but even in advanced age and in the driest of growing 
 tissues, living matter is still to be demonstrated in 
 considerable amount, and can be discovered in 
 advanced age without difficulty. 
 
 That I may render tlie facts upon which my con- 
 clusions have been founded clear to the reader, I will 
 
PLATE J. 
 
 CUTICULAR COVERING OF TONGUE. 
 
 Fi^. 1. 
 
 Natural size 
 of the apeci- 
 men repre- 
 sented iQ 
 Fii^. 1. 
 
 Perpeudicular sectiou thiou^h thick layer of epithelium co'.^-iii!;: ili- i ;i| illio oflbe lonlrjr 
 
 the bioplasm or living matter aud the formed matenil o: 
 
 part of the figure, the cells which are closest to the u 
 
 SEFARAIE cEtLs hut the soft formed material forms a ■ 
 
 bioplasts, and are multiplying When the formed mai'.^rial Laa 
 
 bioplasm to some extent the process of multiplication ceases, As i 
 
 the surtace c, to take the place of those removed, the fonned material i 
 
 the remains of the bioplasm matter die. MagniScd 700 diaiia;;i'-i s . 
 
 tovrards 
 dry aud 
 
 .-.V.,-.'^h or ail mc. 
 
PREPARATION OF SPECIMENS. 
 
 43 
 
 ask him to examine attentively the drriwings taken 
 from a few very minute pieces of tissue which have 
 been prepared so as to distinctly show the masses of 
 bioplasm embedded in them, from which they were 
 formed, and by the influence of which their intej^rity 
 was preserved as long as life lasted."^ Every mass of 
 bioplasm of any tissue can be artificially and perma- 
 nently coloured by an ammoniacal solution of car- 
 mine, and thus every particle of living matter in a 
 tissue can be demonstrated very distinctly, and its 
 relative proportion in the same tissue at different 
 ages, accurately determined.! In the following draw- 
 ings, copied from actual specimens, the bioplasm is 
 coloured carmine red, the vessels which were injected 
 with Prussian-blue fluidj, blue, and the tissue or formed 
 material is represented by the ordinary printing ink, 
 because it was not coloured in the preparations. 
 
 Now, let us picture to ourselves in every part of the 
 tissues of a living thing, even in the solid bone, PI. II, 
 fig. I, and separated from one another by tolerably 
 equal distances, little particles of living matter, often 
 
 * Many specimens, prepared in this manner, were demonstrated 
 publicly in the Courses of Lectures given by me at the Royal C«jllege 
 of Physicians in i86i, in King's College from 1858 to 1869, and in 
 Oxford, by direction of the Radcliffe Trustees, in 186S-69. For details 
 of the mode of preparation, sec " How to Work with the Microscope," 
 4th edit., p. 108. 
 
 t If Mr. Huxley had studied specimens prepared in this manner, his 
 views concerning Protoplasm would probal^ly have been modilicd in 
 very important particulars. 
 
 X " How to Work with the Microscope,"' pp. 93, 97. 
 
44 BIOPLASM OF CUTICLE. 
 
 less than the -:^yL._th of an inch in diameter, each 
 separated from its neighbours, and surrounded by 
 the material it has produced. Each living bioplast 
 attracting, through the lifeless matter already formed 
 by it, materials suitable for its nutrition. Each, living, 
 growing, and forming ; each capable of infinite 
 growth, infinite multiplication. 
 
 Bioplasm of Cuticular Covering of Tongue. — In the 
 first place let us study a minute particle of the tissue 
 which forms the upper free surface of the tongue, in 
 size much less than the head of a very small pin, 
 Plate I, fig. 2, When this is magnified 700 diameters 
 we see the several points represented in Fig. i, pi. I. 
 In every one of those oval masses of bioplasm coloured 
 red, vital phenomena occurred during life. The 
 physicist and chemist are utterly unable to explain 
 the actions going on in the bioplasts, or to tell us 
 exactly what sort of changes occur, or in what way 
 the nutrient matter, taken up from the blood, is 
 changed and some of its elements re-arranged, so that 
 at length is produced the firm tissue on which the 
 physical properties of the texture in question entirely 
 depend. 
 
 After careful study of such a specimen, we may 
 form a notion of the manner in which the bioplasm 
 divides and subdivides, and becomes resolved into 
 formed material which accumulates upon its surface, 
 and eventually hardens and constitutes an effective 
 protection to the delicate textures which lie beneath 
 
BIOPLASM OF BONE. 4^ 
 
 it. We can also understand how the new elementary 
 parts gradually grow up from beneath and supply the 
 place of the old ones which are cast off from the free 
 surface. But these phenomena cannot be explained 
 by physics and chemistry, or without calling in the 
 aid of the hypothesis of vital power. 
 
 Bone of Kitten and its Bioplasm. — Next, let us 
 ascertain whether the examination of other tissues in 
 the body teaches us the same general facts. In PI. II, 
 fig. I, p. 46, is represented a small piece of the perma- 
 nent bone with the subjacent soft texture of a kitten 
 at birth. To the left is the delicate growing tissue 
 in which the vessels that have been artificially injected 
 with Prussian-blue are distributed. From the blood 
 circulating in these all the elements entering into the 
 formation of bone are selected. The little bioplasts 
 above c are the agents actively concerned in the 
 operation. These take up nutrient matter, and grow 
 and multiply, and become separated further and 
 further from one another as the delicate tissue which 
 they form increases in the intervals between them. 
 The matrix thus produced afterwards becomes the 
 seat of deposition of calcareous salts, in consequence, 
 probably, of chemical changes, d. The calcareous salts 
 become incorporated with the organic matrix, and 
 the bone formation is complete, e. The process con- 
 tinues, but more slowly, until each little bioplast 
 henceforth drawing its nutrient material through 
 pores (canaliculi), left during the progress of the 
 
BIOPLASM OF NERVE. ^y 
 
 every one of these different tissues are minute masses 
 of living matter or bioplasm. The matter of which 
 the several bioplasts taking part in the formation of 
 all these very different tissues are composed, possesses 
 the same characters, although the several forms of 
 bioplasm produce tissues differing from one another 
 in the most essential particulars. 
 
 At an earlier period of life, the little tissue-forming 
 bioplasts were situated much nearer to one another. 
 This separation of the bioplasts is a necessary con- 
 sequence of the formation of formed material or tissue, 
 which proceeds, and, as age advances, accumulates in 
 the intervals between the bioplasts. At a still earlier 
 period the bioplasts, which were to take part in the 
 formation of cuticle, nerves, vessels, pigment-cells, 
 fibrous tissue, &c., respectively, were quite close to- 
 gether, or formed part of one bioplasm-mass. 
 
 It would have been impossible had the tissue been 
 examined at an early period, to determine which was 
 a nerve bioplast, \\\i\QX\ depigment bioplast, and whicli was 
 to take part in the formation of a vessel, or at lengtli 
 to assume the form of a blood corpuscle. But all these 
 bioplasts have descended from a common bioplasmic 
 mass. It is absurd, therefore, to attempt to explain 
 the results, as some have done, by affirming that they 
 are due to differentiation, to molecular c/ianges, or to 
 machiner}', or to physical influences, fur it must be 
 obvious that by these phrases no explanation what- 
 ever is afforded. 
 
48 ''MOLECULAR'' CHANGES. 
 
 The bioplasm of an advanced tissue cannot be dis- 
 tinguished from embryonic bioplasm any more than 
 the bioplasm of one tissue can be distinguished from 
 that of another. That there must be a vast difference 
 in power is certain, from the very different results 
 which are brought about. The difference between 
 bioplasts is not a difference in physical characters, or 
 in structure, or in chemical properties, nor is it to be 
 expressed in force terms. Physical authorities may 
 assert that the difference is due to some difference in 
 the " molecular changes " which take place, but then 
 we must inquire what occasions the difference 1 More- 
 over, since nothing is known as regards the supposed 
 molecular changes, while the meaning of the term 
 " molecular," as it is employed here, cannot be de- 
 fined, it is obvious that the announcement amounts to 
 absolutely nothing more than the admission that a 
 change occurs, but that nothing whatever is known to 
 physicists concerning its nature, and nothing is known 
 of the circumstance^ which determine its occurrence. 
 
 No one who studies such a tissue as this will feel 
 at all satisfied with the manner in which its descrip- 
 tion is dismissed by many of those who have not the 
 patience or inclination to pursue microscopical inves- 
 tigation, and who endeavour to prejudice persons 
 against minute inquiries and the facts which have 
 been demonstrated thereby.* 
 
 * The most positive assertions have been made concerning facts only 
 to be demonstrated and understood by those who have made themselves 
 
A NERVE CENTRE, 4^ 
 
 It is very significant that no attempt is made by- 
 philosophers who discourse on the origin and destina- 
 tion of Hving beings and of the world they inhabit, 
 to account for the wonderful arrangement of one of 
 the very many textures of a living thing, and of the 
 intimate relationship they bear to one another, or for 
 their exquisite and orderly adaptation by which 
 excellence of action and perfect fulfilment of the 
 objects of their formation are ensured. 
 
 A nerve centre is represented in Fig. i, pi. III. The 
 little oval bodies embedded in it are the nerve cells^ 
 from each of which two or more delicate nerve fibres 
 extend, or have been drawn out during the growth of 
 the tissue. These nerve fibres run between contigu- 
 ous cells and seem to surround them, as in the draw- 
 ing. Formerly they were supposed to form a capsule 
 of *' connective tissue," in which it was said the nerve 
 cells were embedded. 
 
 The ' cells ' are the sources of nerve force, which is, 
 perhaps, closely allied to, but more probably identical 
 with electricity. The currents starting from a cell 
 traverse nerve fibres, which are often of great length, 
 and, after being conducted along many fine fibres 
 resulting from subdivision of the original nerve fibre, 
 
 practically familiar with minute inquiry, by authorities who have been 
 occupied in a totally distinct branch of scientific investigation, and 
 who are quite ignorant of microscopical work. Microscopical observers 
 have been told what they ought to have seen, and what they have seen 
 has been condemned by ' philosophers ' whose remarks prove them to l>e 
 absolutely ignorant even of the first principles of observation. 
 
 E 
 
5° 
 
 MR. HERBERT SPENCER 
 
 probably at length return to the same cell. Thus 
 there are in every part of the nervous system exces- 
 sively delicate fibres or cords forming continuous tracts. 
 These constitute complete circuits, in various parts of 
 which are situated the organs which are under the con- 
 trol and government of the nerve centres, PL II, fig. 2. 
 
 Nerve fibres are the cords which transmit the 
 nerve force, and there has been much discussion con- 
 cerning the character of the material which plays 
 this very important part, and the changes which 
 supervene when it is thrown into a state of activity. 
 Attempts have been made to discover some peculiar 
 structure or constitution of the active part of the 
 nerve fibre, which will enable us to explain its action. 
 Many very positive but very fanciful assertions have 
 unfortunately had the effect of leading us away from 
 the truth, and have encouraged the general acceptance 
 of erroneous hypotheses in cases where a little con- 
 sideration of the actual facts might have led to the 
 adoption of a correct conclusion. 
 
 It has been assumed that the active part of the 
 nerve fibre (the axis cylinder) is composed of some 
 peculiar colloid. Had Mr. Herbert Spencer examined 
 the axis cylinders of some nerves, he would have 
 found that the material of which they were com- 
 posed very closely resembled some kinds of ordinary 
 fibrous tissue. Of course it may be said, " that 
 this resemblance does not prove identity, either 
 of structure or composition." And it has been 
 
ON THE 'AXIS CYLINDER' OF NERVE. 51 
 
 argued, that wc must not draw conclusions from 
 positive observations, because beyond the Hmit of 
 observation there may be facts which, if they could be 
 ascertained, might justify conclusions at variance with 
 those deduced from the facts we have. But there is 
 nothing to be demonstrated by investigation to justify 
 the conclusion that the action of the axis cylinder is 
 due to any special peculiarity of structure or com- 
 position. The axis cylinder is composed of " protein 
 substance," says Mr. Spencer, but this is not a pecu- 
 liarity, since a number of tissues may be said with 
 equal truth to consist of protein substance. It has been 
 affirmed that the peculiar colloid "habitually changed 
 from one of its isomeric states to another ;" but in 
 this particular it would be difficult to prove that it 
 differed from many other things. There is no more 
 reason for supposing that the axis cylinder consists of 
 '* matter isomerically transformed with case," than 
 that white or yellow^ fibrous tissue consists of such 
 material. Nor is there any reason whatever for 
 assuming that a continuous length of fibrous tissue, or 
 even moist thread, would not be an efficient medium 
 for the transmission of nerve force, if it were protected 
 and arranged like the axis cylinder of a nerve. It is 
 very curious to notice the indignation of some philo- 
 sophers if anyone speaks of vital power, while the)- 
 themselves, in the most innocent manner, assume the 
 discovery of peculiar colloids and matters isomerically 
 transformed with case to suit the terms of any physi- 
 
 E 2 
 
52 
 
 FINE NERVE FIBRES. 
 
 cal proposition which they feel disposed to propound. 
 The attempt to show that a nerve is formed by 
 physical changes, and acts by virtue of some peculiar 
 chemical properties, has not succeeded. 
 
 Of the Fine Nerve Fibres around an Artery. — The 
 degree of contraction of the muscular fibres encircling 
 every little branch of an artery, as represented in 
 Fig. 2, is constantly varying, and this change is deter- 
 mined by the varying intensity of the current tra- 
 versing the nerves distributed to the muscular coat. 
 Any alteration in the calibre of the artery instantly 
 affects the flow of blood through the vessel, and a 
 greater or less quantity of blood is distributed to the 
 capillaries in a given time, according as the arterial 
 coat is contracted or relaxed. In this way, through 
 the intervention of a highly complex mechanism, the 
 nerve centres exert an indirect but very important 
 regulating influence upon the.process of nutrition. 
 
 Distributed immediately external to the capillary 
 vessels, are also very fine nerve fibres, branches of 
 which join the network around the arteries. These 
 nerve fibres of the capillaries are probably connected 
 with the same nerve centres, and, perhaps, with the 
 same cells as those from which the nerves distributed 
 to the artery emanate. There results by this arrange- 
 ment a very elaborate self-regulating mechanism of 
 wonderful perfection, by which the supply of nutrient 
 material to the tissues and organs of vertebrate 
 animals is regulated according to the demand, and is 
 
PLATE III. 
 
 NERVES TO ARTERIES AND CAPILLARIES, 
 f'lg- ^- Fig; 2. 
 
 Lt- 
 
 
 130 j^:'/ 
 
 -A portion of a tanglion or nerve centre, 
 situated at the side of a nerve, showing ganft- 
 lion cells and nei-ve fibres aiound tbein, ■wbich 
 ■uu into the trunk and are there distnbuted. 
 r'rcm one of the nei^es of the pei-i< nulinin of 
 the ox. X 130, p. 40 
 
 Portion of very small artery, showing mus- 
 cular fibre cells and nerve fibres, ramifying in 
 the areolar coat. Frog. X 700. p. 52. 
 
 Fi^. 3. 
 
 Capillary with diverticula from the roof ' 
 fibres are seen very freely distributed . 
 • Uaugeiu calibre without the nerves b'- 
 
 rej. 
 
 rve 
 luy 
 il^'o 
 
 tooo of an inch 
 
 X 7u(;. 
 
 [To tac« pas? 
 
CAPILLARIES AND NERVE FLBRES. 
 
 53 
 
 altered according as the conditions to which the 
 tissues themselves arc exposed as regards heat, mois- 
 ture, and the like, undergo change. But into the 
 consideration of this subject, interesting and im- 
 portant though it undoubtedly is, as an illustration of 
 the existence of arrangements which cannot be 
 brought about by material changes alone, I must not 
 further enter now. 
 
 Capillaries and Nerve Fibres, Palate of the Frog. — 
 In Fig. 3, pi. Ill, is represented a small capillary 
 vessel from the mucous membrane of the palate of 
 the frog. These capillaries exhibit at short intervals 
 little pouches or diverticula, the use of which has not 
 been fully explained, but which probably act as little 
 reservoirs in which the blood remains partially stag- 
 nant, so that the exudation of fluid from it for the 
 nutrition of rapidly-growing epithelium is favoured. 
 It must be obvious, from the position of the numerous 
 nerve fibres seen around the capillaries, that very 
 slight increase in the diameter of a vessel, consequent 
 upon its distension by blood, would affect the nerve 
 fibres ramifying upon its exterior. In consequence 
 an influence would be produced upon the nerve centre 
 which would be immediately followed by the convey- 
 ance of an impulse along the nerves distributed to 
 the artery (p. 52). Contraction of the little arteries 
 distributing blood to the capillaries involved, would 
 follow, and a reduced flow of blood through the capil- 
 laries would be occasioned. 
 
54 CAUDATE NERVE-CELLS. 
 
 Vessels and Nerve Fibres of Miccoiis Membrane. — In 
 Fig. I, pi. IV, is a representation of a very interesting 
 specimen, from which the reader may gain an idea of 
 the multitudes of bioplasts which exist in connection 
 with some of the sensitive textures of man. The 
 drawing represents a thin section of the mucous mem- 
 brane of the human epiglottis of man immediately 
 beneath the epithelium. Numerous bundles of deli- 
 cate nerve fibres are seen ramifying in all directions, 
 and interlacing freely with one another. Bioplasts 
 are observed in connection with the nerve fibres. The 
 majority of the nerves represented, probably take 
 part in sensation, but a few of the finest fibres may be 
 traced to the capillary vessels. Before the physical 
 theory of life can be accepted, it must be shown how, 
 according to that doctrine, the arrangement of the 
 nerve fibres demonstrated in such a specimen may 
 be accounted for. 
 
 Large Candate Nerve Cells. — In the great central 
 organs of the cerebro-spinal system of man, and the 
 higher vertebrata, the elementary parts or cells are 
 very large, and of an irregular form. These are the 
 so-called caudate nei've vesicles, which should, I think, 
 be regarded as stations where numerous nerve tracts 
 cross and intersect, and then pass off from the " cell" 
 in various directions, PI. IV, fig. 2. 
 
 The bioplasm which takes part in the formation of 
 these complex organs is situated near the central part 
 of the cell. The so-called " nucleus," that is the 
 
PLATE IV. 
 
 NERVES AND CAUDATE N£'^^"'' '''-''i.- 
 Yip:. 1. 
 
 i,i 
 
 
 i^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Mucous membrane covering the epi^'.ottis, human subiect. T!i.» section )ia3 ho. n m.i 
 beiieaih the epiLhelium. The capillaries with their masses ctlaoplaarn. are -vi;!! re 
 iu Uie intervals are seen nximeroua bundl>^s of nerve fibres, witli tb'^lr biopla'^'ts. I , 
 ''^ >re, however, far too delicate to be seen in a specimen magnitie'i only ulo diamev 
 
 J^'lg. 
 
 -.n." I'nr ruicl raii'lat-^ nerve cells from Ht" ruif ►■nfir li';,rii of tl,.' ,: • 
 ■ "i in the formation • 
 1 some distance, di^- 
 ' in ditTerent 'cells ' .i< 
 
 nerves, humau sut;jcct x 13U. ; 
 
 ■ of ill'? HT'iiial rrf'l. Tho 
 
 . of 
 ual 
 
CELLS OF TILE GRE V MA TTER. 
 
 55 
 
 inner part of the bioplasm or living matter of the cell, 
 is not connected with the nerve fibres as some have 
 supposed, but it is concerned in the formation of the 
 soft material which constitutes the body of the cell, 
 and which is traversed by the nerve currents as these 
 course across the cell from one fibre to the others which 
 leave it. 
 
 Cells of the Gny Matter of the Convolutions of tJie 
 Brain. — Caudate nerve-cells, smaller than those from 
 the spinal cord, just referred to, but of the same type 
 of structure, are found in other parts of the cerebro- 
 spinal centres. In the grey matter of the brain they 
 are very numerous. In fact the greater part of this 
 structure is made up of these cells, and extremely 
 delicate nerve fibres ramifying amongst them. Many 
 of the cells are remarkable for tapering into one ex- 
 cessively long fibre, which becomes very fine, and 
 proceeds i\\ a direction towards the surface of the 
 brain. This fibre passes some distance before it 
 divides into its finest ramifications. Tlie fibres from 
 the base of the cell, however, divide and subdivide 
 into numerous branches as soon as they have left it. 
 The arrangement is figured in 2 and 3, Plate V. 
 
 If the reader will carefully examine Fig. 3, he will be 
 able to form some conception of the vast multitudes of 
 these cells in the grey matter of the brain of one of the 
 lower animals (the Guinea pig). The piece represented 
 is really not so large as the head of a very small pin, 
 and is very thin,— much thinner than tlie tln'nnest 
 
56 OF THE BRAIN. 
 
 tissue paper. In a piece of grey matter of the size 
 of a mustard -seed, there would be many thousands of 
 such cells, and the space of one cubic inch would 
 contain several millions. The relation and arrange- 
 ment of the vessels are also well seen in the drawing 
 under consideration. Occupying every portion of the 
 intervals between the cells, are multitudes of fibres 
 Avhich it is impossible to give in the drawing. A very 
 imperfect idea of the arrangement may, however, be 
 formed from the representation given in the lower 
 part of Fig. i, pi. V, to the left. These fibres all come 
 from cells, and each is in fact composed of numerous 
 tracts along which nerve-currents pass. At each cell 
 many different circuits intersect, and in this way lines 
 are established between many distant parts and organs 
 situated far from one another. These may all be 
 influenced, and at the same moment of time, by 
 changes occurring in one part of a single nerve circuit ; 
 and complex movements of groups of muscles placed 
 at ereat distances from one another and from their 
 nervous centre, may be executed, and very different 
 and distinct actions combined and harmonized most 
 perfectly, and at the same instant. 
 
 Is it right that authorities in other departments of 
 knowledge, who arc perfectly ignorant of these marvel- 
 lous arrangements, and lack the disposition to learn 
 facts that others could teach them, having neither 
 patience nor skill to examine the textures for them- 
 selves and make out their structure, should assert 
 
PLATK V. 
 
 CAUDATK NERVE CHILLS— (J RAY MATTER, 
 yi?. 1. 
 
 p-r 
 
 
 
 Caudate nerve cells with, their flbrea from th« ^I'ny mntcer 
 
 of the coavolutions of the brain, human subject. The 
 
 bioplasm of the cells and that of the capillarv vessels is 
 
 represented. The capillaiies are blue. X 350.. p. 56. 
 
 Fitf. 
 
 Angular caudace ucr'. , 
 
 the gray milter of th-: 
 lamb. The lon^ str i s 
 
 directed upwards, pass towards the 
 surfHC':; X 130. p 55. 
 
 issues consUtuLiD^ the gray matter Brain of a Guinea pif%. The vess. 
 : rusnian blue. a. part of a small artery with the bioplasm of th- 
 
 loplasm of the nerve cells and vessels is ftvven. The nerve cella > 
 u the part of the gray matter wlieuce this execimen was taken, ali 
 
 p. 56. 
 
 fonoth of an luch 
 
 X 215. 
 X 130. 
 
MR. HERBERT SPENCERS VIEWS. 
 
 57 
 
 most positively, and teach far and wide, that the whole 
 of this marvellous mechanism was built by the sun 
 and constructed by force ? But it is wonderful that 
 the public should accept such assertions without 
 question, and even delight in being told again and 
 again that the brain is a force-constructed mind- 
 evolving mill. The philosophers in question are, of 
 course, unable to tell us how a single cell is formed, 
 or how the wonderfully complex interlacement of 
 fibres, which exists eveiywhere, is effected. They 
 do not inquire how the fibre grows from the cell, 
 and are uncertain whether, indeed, the processes of 
 the cell are prolonged into nerve fibres or not. And 
 numerous other structural matters of fundamental 
 importance seem to be equally beneath their notice. 
 They have decided to their own satisfaction what 
 the nerve tissue is, or what it ought to be ; how it 
 ought to act, and how it ought to have been formed, 
 and according to them there is an end of the matter 
 materially. 
 
 I am sorry again to criticise Mr. Herbert Spencer's 
 statement of facts, but the description given by him 
 of the formation of nerve cells and fibres is in 
 many respects so vague and incorrect, that it 
 ought not to be allowed to pass. He says, '' the 
 vesicles or corpuscles appear to take tJieir rise out of 
 a nitrogenous protoplasm, ///// of granules* and 
 
 * The granules, it is said, consist of "fatly matter," but how they 
 came to be we are not told. 
 
58 FORMATION OF NERVE CELLS, 
 
 containing imcleir Now, every tissue in the body 
 may be said to take its rise out of a nitrogenous 
 protoplasm, so that such an assertion conveys abso- 
 lutely no information respecting the formation of 
 nerve cells. What the ^^ granules " maybe Mr. Spen- 
 cer does not tell us, nor does he consider it necessary 
 to account for the origin of the nitrogenous proto- 
 plasm, or to describe the nature and properties of this 
 particular nerve-corpuscle-forming matter. Round 
 these nuclei, he goes on to remark, "the protoplasm 
 aggregates into spheroidal masses, which, becoming 
 severally inclosed in delicate membranes (in many 
 cases inferred rather than seen) are so made into nerve 
 cells ! " Now, this statement is altogether unsup- 
 ported by observation ; it is, indeed, positively in- 
 correct. The protoplasm does not aggregate at all, 
 the masses are not severally enclosed in delicate 
 membrane, and nerve cells are not made in the 
 nianner described. Further on, it is affirmed that 
 the *' nucleated cells, or nerve-corpuscles, give off 
 processes ;" but how they '* give off " processes, or 
 what makes them give off processes, we are not 
 told. But the processes are not formed by being 
 ''given off" from the cells in any case, as far as is 
 known. The cells which were originally connected 
 move away from one another, and the process or in- 
 tervening fibre is as it were drawn off from them. It 
 is evident from his description, that Mr. Herbert 
 Spencer has but a very imperfect notion of the struc- 
 
ACCORDING TO MR. HERBERT SPENCER. 
 
 59 
 
 tures he describes, and has not seen them. If he has 
 examined specimens, they must have been very im- 
 perfect, or the method of conducting the examination 
 faulty. 
 
 In explaining nerve action, Mr. Herbert Spencer 
 seems to consider that the active part of the nerve 
 fibre is protoplasm, and the material out of wliich the 
 nerve fibre is formed is, according to him, also proto- 
 plasm ; but these two kinds of " protoplasm " are as 
 distinct from one another as the moving, living, 
 growing protoplasm of the white blood corpuscle is 
 from the stationary, firm, solid, passive white or yellow 
 fibrous tissue. Things so very different, should be de- 
 scribed differently, and cannot be supposed to act alike. 
 
 The tissue, moreover, never "builds up." It is the 
 particles of the matter, while in the living state which 
 " build up," and arrange themselves, or are arranged 
 by some force or power active in this temporary 
 exceptional (living) condition. The assertion that 
 "among the corpuscles and their branches are dis- 
 tributed the tcnninations of nerve fibres " is another 
 error, for no terminations whatever have been demon- 
 strated by anyone in any nerve-centre. Neither is it 
 true that in any nervous centre " the connections 
 between fibres and cells are rarely, if e\cr, direct." I 
 have introduced these criticisms to show that man}' 
 of the so-called facts upon which certain conjectural 
 views have been based are only facts of the imagina- 
 tion of privileged persons. 
 
6o OF THE BIOPLASM TAKING PART 
 
 But I will not pursue this subject more in detail 
 in this place, as my object in referring to the structure 
 of tissues is only to direct attention to the living 
 matter, which has been completely ignored by many 
 physical philosophers, but is nevertheless to be de- 
 monstrated in connection with all the tissues of man 
 and animals, and from which everything in their 
 bodies has been formed. 
 
 ■ Before leaving this part of my subject, however, I 
 must say a few words upon the elementary parts of 
 the brain, which are, I believe, the bioplasts imme- 
 diately concerned in the active operations of the mind 
 These are situated in the soft grey matter which forms 
 the convolutions of brain, consisting of an enormously 
 extended thin layer, so folded as to occupy the least 
 possible space. 
 
 Bioplasm concenied in Mental Nerve Action.^ — Near 
 the surface of the grey matter in that extensive layer 
 above the planes in which the caudate nerve-cells are 
 situated, which is generally said to be composed of 
 delicate nerve fibres and "granular matter," I have 
 succeeded in demonstrating multitudes of very small 
 masses of bioplasm lying amongst the finest branches 
 of the nerve fibres, something like those which consti- 
 tute the so-called "granular layer" of the retina and 
 of the cerebellum. In some places there are aggre- 
 gations or collections of these bodies. They are 
 
 * The following description is taken from "Protoplasm," but the 
 plate illustrating these remarks is new. 
 
IN MENTA L NER VE AC TION. 6 1 
 
 nearly spherical, are extremely delicate, and become 
 disintegrated very soon after death. Some sections 
 of grey matter appear to consist almost entirely of 
 these bodies, so great is their number. Some seem 
 to be connected together by very delicate processes 
 of the same transparent material. 
 
 Masses of bioplasm thus situated are arranged 
 very favourably for influencing the fine nerv^c fibres 
 which ramify amongst them. Figs, i and 2, pi. VI, p. 62. 
 It is obvious that the slightest change in their form 
 could not fail to affect the nerve currents traversing 
 these fibres, and as we are now well acquainted with 
 the active movements of bioplasm, it is impossible to 
 help suggesting that the movements occurring in 
 these masses of living matter produce a direct effect 
 upon the adjacent fibres. These vital movements 
 or vibrations occurring in matter of excessive tenuity 
 constitute, or are the immediate consequences of 
 mental vital action. The directions in which the 
 living matter is made to move by the conscious 
 life-power which directs it, will determine the par- 
 ticular cords of the nerve mechanism to be struck ; 
 the special movements may be the expressions of the 
 inward ideas. If this be so, mind is the vital power 
 which is associated with this the most exalted form 
 of living or germinal matter, so arranged that the 
 slightest change occurring in it may produce indirectly 
 an effect through the influence of a most elaborate 
 mechanism, brought into very intimate relation with 
 
62 CHARACTERS OF BIOPLASM. 
 
 it. Does any one, who has studied structure, really 
 believe that through physics or chemistry the slightest 
 approach to an explanation of the formation of the 
 mechanism or of its action will ever be made ? 
 
 The conclusion that will be drawn from the facts 
 ascertained by a careful examination of the several 
 preparations just described (and almost any others 
 prepared like these would have equally answered my 
 purpose), is that the physical doctrine of life appears 
 plausible only if the facts of nature are regarded very 
 cursorily and superficially. As we investigate more 
 minutely we find that difficulties present themselves to 
 this physical interpretation of the facts, and these 
 difficulties increase in number at every step. If we 
 employ the highest powers, and so prepare the tissues 
 that the delicate structure is very slightly deranged, 
 we see great reason to demur to the acceptance of the 
 physical doctrine of life. While, if we investigate 
 the distribution of the bioplasm, study its arrange- 
 ment and relation to the different tissues at different 
 periods of life, and submit living bioplasm under 
 favourable circumstances to the magnifying power of 
 from 1,500 to 3,000 diameters, the conviction will force 
 itself upon the mind that any attempt to explain by 
 physics the phenomena we demonstrate must utterly 
 fail at this time. 
 
PLATE VI. 
 
 BIOPLASM 01'' GRAY MATTER— PROBABLY CONCERNED IN THOUGHT. 
 
 Fig. 1. 
 
 6 I5J0HES REMOVKlP. 
 
 b 
 
 KE&R 
 PIA MATER. 
 
 Vertical section through superficial part of gray matter of cerebral convolutions, human sub.iect. 
 In part schematic, o. caudsite nerve cella with long processes directed to—nHs tho snrfnc; "f the 
 gray matter to the left of the page. Tissue occupying an extent of six ii ' -'1 
 
 from the diawiui^ under letter 6. c. nerve bioplasts, suppcseil to take [ "• 
 
 Numerous excessively fine nerve fibres prolonged fiom tht- cells and libres ' . u 
 
 of the gray matter are seen in the intervals between the bioplasts. Reduced ii-.au tiji lo _;5. o, i.. oi. 
 
 Fis-. 2. 
 
 C- 
 
 ^., 
 
 -^ 
 
 artery is seen on the lett. ibis, and ii 
 superficial part of the gray matter are r- 
 
 ly in the u 
 
 ijVici oi an inch 
 
VITAL PHENOMENA AND VITALITY. 
 
 We may now consider some of the vital pJicnoinena 
 which are common to every form of bioplasm in 
 nature, from the lowest and simplest to the very 
 highest. 
 
 Characters of the Bioplasm. — The living" matter has 
 been proved by the aid of higher magnifying powers 
 than had been used before 1863, to be clear, trans- 
 parent, and structureless. I have shown tliat the phe- 
 nomena of growth, nutrition, and multiplication could 
 not be explained by any structural or mechanical 
 arrangements. No structure of any kind can be 
 seen, even when the bioplasm is magnified 5,CX)0 
 diameters.* The remarkable fact was demonstrated 
 that a minute portion of transparent, colourless, living 
 matter exhibited very peculiar movements — move- 
 ments which could not be explained by any known 
 laws. One part of the bioplasm could be seen to 
 move in advance of another part, or over it, as it were, 
 or through it, just as if the mass of living matter 
 consisted of colourless fluid, every particle of which 
 had the capacity of movement, and at the same time. 
 One part could be seen to move, as it were, into or 
 through another part, in one case blending partially 
 or completely, in another apparently remaining dis- 
 tinct from the rest. 
 
 * "On the Structure and Growth of the Tissues," a course of 
 lectures delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, April and May, 
 186 1. 
 
64 GROWTH, NUTRITION AND ACTION. 
 
 The bioplasm embedded in a tissue (pages 44, 45) 
 does not pass gradually into the formed matter, as 
 some have asserted, but the transition is sudden and 
 abrupt. The living appears to be in contact with that 
 which has ceased to live. In a given bulk of the 
 matter of the different tissues of the living body and 
 at different ages, the relative proportion of the living 
 to the lifeless matter varies greatly (Plate I) ; but 
 every little particle of bioplasm has upon its surface, 
 in contact with it, lifeless matter, which may be very 
 sparing in quantity, as in quickly growing tissues, or 
 constitute by far the largest part of the matter. 
 
 This living matter is intimately concerned in the 
 growth, mUrition, and action of every texture of every 
 living being, animal, or vegetable, as long as It re- 
 mains alive. Towards every one of the minute 
 masses of bioplasm represented in the Plates In this 
 volume, currents of fluid, holding nutrient matters In 
 solution, flowed during life. In this way every portion 
 of the surrounding tissue, it will be observed, must 
 have been continually bathed with fresh fluid, and 
 thus it was preserved in a state favourable for the 
 discharge of its function. Nor is it possible to ex- 
 plain any of these processes without taking into 
 account the phenomena of the living matter. If the 
 living matter dies, these processes at once stop. A 
 particle of matter cannot, I think, be either half alive 
 or half dead. It must be living, or It must absolutely 
 have ceased to live. When we study a thing that is 
 
OF LIVING MA TTER. 6 5 
 
 alive, we do not find that every particle of the matter 
 of the being lives, but that only the bioplasm of its 
 organism is actually living. This only can grow and 
 take up nourishment and convert and multiply. 
 
 And if we study the ordinary phenomena of 
 living beings, we shall find that they may be 
 traced to their antecedent phenomena, through per- 
 haps a long chain, until at last we arriv^c at the 
 really vital phenomena of the bioplasm or living mat- 
 ter. But at this point our investigation for the present 
 must stop. For let us suppose that a most skilful 
 chemist sets to work to ascertain what this living 
 matter is made of. Ere his chemical analysis can 
 commence the matter has passed from the living 
 state, and ail that he can do is to ascertain the 
 nature of the chemical substances which are formed 
 when it dies and after its death. The chemical com- 
 position of living matter is unknown and probably 
 unknowable, for it is impossible to analyse matter 
 that is living. To assert therefore that living matter is 
 "protein" or "albumen" is to assert that which never 
 has been and never can be proved, and all arguments 
 based upon such assertions must be discarded. To 
 say that living matter consists of these things changed 
 or modified is mere evasion, and any physiologist who 
 adopts this expedient evades the consideration of the 
 question, for of the chemistry of the living matter 
 itself, and of the manner in which the chemical 
 changes arc eftectcd,he is aware that he knows nothing. 
 
66 VITAL AC TIONS 
 
 and that nothing is really known. No one has been 
 able to give any explanation of the phenomena re- 
 garded from the physical point of view. We can all of 
 us see living matter move, see one part raising itself 
 above and in advance of another part, in spite of the 
 action of gravitation ; but the most delicate refine- 
 ments of physical research have so far failed to help 
 us to discover the nature or cause of the movement, 
 or even to afford any conception of the exact changes 
 which occur while the movements are going on under 
 our eyes. The assertion that the movement is 
 moleculaf and a consequence of previous molecular 
 changes is mere pretence of knowledge, for, as before 
 stated, nothing whatever is known of the molecular 
 phenomena supposed, or of the changes which give 
 rise to these. So far therefore it is right to regard the 
 distinction between the living and the non-living as 
 absolute, and all hypotheses which are based upon 
 the idea that this difference is one of degree only and 
 that vital power is but a mode of ordinary force must 
 be abandoned, although no doubt physical views of 
 life will yet be urged upon the attention of unlearned 
 people. Observers who are acquainted with the facts 
 and arc able to investigate details will condemn them 
 because they are opposed to reason and calculated 
 only to mislead the ignorant. 
 
 Those who seek to explain vital actions by attri- 
 buting them to antecedent changes, are in a somewhat 
 better position than those who assert the changes to 
 
NOT EXPLAINED BY P/IYS/CS. 
 
 67 
 
 be actually molecular, although this view is also un- 
 tenable. The doctrine under consideration rests upon 
 the idea of the dependence of every change upon an 
 antecedent change. But who can tell us anything 
 concerning the nature of the change antecedent to 
 the changes Avhich can be observed in living matter } 
 As yet we have no means of following up the inquiry 
 one step beyond the observed change. It comes 
 then to this : that the physical doctrine at this time 
 rests upon the assertion that the phenomena of living 
 matter are of the same order and nature as the phe- 
 nomena of non-living matter. There are absolutely 
 no facts to which the advocates of this doctrine can 
 appeal in support of their conclusion. Analytical 
 operations do not enable us to learn anything con- 
 cerning the changes of the actual bioplasm or living 
 matter. Neither physicists, chemists, nor any other 
 scientific investigators can explain to us the nature of 
 the changes which occur in it. We know of the 
 phenomena, but to account for them by any laws of 
 nature now known is not possible, and it is surely 
 presumptuous, instead of being philosophical, on the 
 part of any one to permit himself to assert dogmati- 
 cally that the changes must he p/iysieal ixnd due to the 
 operation of the same laws which affect non-living 
 matter, because all change is physical and all laws 
 are physical laws. 
 
 Nutrition. — Living matter, if placed under certain 
 conditions as regards temperature, moisture, and light, 
 
 F 2 
 
68 TISSUE IS NOT NOURISHED. 
 
 and at the same time surrounded by fluid holding 
 in solution certain compounds, increases in amount. 
 The matter which is added and which becomes part 
 of the mass cannot after its incorporation be dis- 
 tinguished from the rest. In other words, the living 
 matter takes up non-living matter and converts this 
 into living matter. This is nutrition. 
 
 It is generally supposed that this process of nutri- 
 tion goes on in every particle of tissue, — that, for ex- 
 ample, the fibrous tissue sckxts from the blood con- 
 stituents which become fibrous tissue, — that in the 
 same way muscle and nerve and other textures select 
 the proper materials adapted for their increase. But 
 this is not so. The tissues have no such selecting or 
 metabolic properties. The bioplasm only possesses 
 the marvellous power of taking into itself certain mat- 
 ters, and of changing them in such a manner, and at 
 length of undergoing conversion into tissue. Without 
 bioplasm there can be neither nutiition, nor growth, 
 nor development, nor tissue-formation of any kind. 
 
 But further, when a mass of living matter is freely 
 supplied with pabulum instead of increasing indefi- 
 nitely, it attains a certain size and then undergoes 
 division. In this way the number of masses of bio- 
 plasm increase during the period of development and 
 early life. In many parts of the body this increase 
 continues while life lasts, but the growth and multi- 
 plication of different forms of bioplasm of the body, 
 and of the same form at different ages take place at 
 
BIOPLASM IN DISEASE. 
 
 69 
 
 a very different rate. These, like other phenomena 
 of the bioplasm, are inexpHcablc by physics, and all 
 conclusions concerning the nature of growth, nutri- 
 tion, and increase which rest upon the assumption 
 that these phenomena are plu'sical and chemical arc 
 unsound, illogical, and misleading. Such \'iews re- 
 tard progress and tend to prevent the spread of 
 natural knowledge. 
 
 Bioplasm in Disease. — The bioplasm or living matter 
 circulating in the fluids and embedded in the textures 
 of the body undergoes most important changes in 
 disease. Oftentimes it increases to many times the 
 volume it occupied in the healthy state, and thus the 
 most terrible derangement of many physiological pro- 
 cesses may be occasioned, and in several ways. In every 
 form of fever and inflammation the bioplasm increases, 
 and its increase is associated with the development of 
 heat. Living matter or bioplasm constitutes those 
 minute particles known as disease genus, which are 
 the agents concerned in propagating all contagious 
 diseases.* Having escaped from the infected organism, 
 the particles of contagious bioplasm, often less than 
 the Too'ooTT of an inch in diameter, may be wafted by 
 currents of air, perhaps through very considerable 
 distances. If any of them accidentally come in con- 
 tact with an organism in a state favourable to their 
 growth and multiplication, they may pass into tlie 
 blood, grow and multiply, and establish a state of 
 * See "Disease Germs, their Real Nature.'' January, 1871. 
 
70 PRODUCTIOX OF FORMED MATERIAL. 
 
 disease like that existing in the organism whence 
 they were derived. It need scarcely be observed that 
 the changes of bioplasm in disease are not to be 
 explained by mechanics or chemistry. 
 
 Pi'oduction of Formed Material from Bioplasm. — 
 Not less wonderful than the other vital phenomena 
 to which I have adverted is the following, which 
 occurs whenever tissue of any kind is formed. 
 
 A mass of living matter undergoes change upon its 
 surface. Some of the living material loses its vital 
 powers, it ceases to be nourished, and ceases to grow. 
 Part of the living bioplasm in fact ceases to live. It 
 dies and is changed. The elements of which it con- 
 sists are rearranged, and thus lifeless formed material 
 and non-living tissues of every kind result. 
 
 Many of those most beautiful and transparent jelly- 
 like creatures known as animalcules, which exhibit 
 such wonderful activity in warm weather, become 
 torpid and perfectly quiescent when exposed to cold. 
 If they be examined in winter, it will be found that 
 the beautiful transparent textures have become 
 granular, and highly refracting insoluble particles 
 can sometimes be detected in considerable number. 
 These changes result from the death of part of the 
 living matter of which these delicate organisms were 
 in great part composed. By the accumulation of 
 dead matter (cell-wall) upon the surface of the bio- 
 plasm, what remains of this is protected and saved 
 from death. When spring returns and external con- 
 
BIOI'LASM AND FORMED MA TTER. 7 1 
 
 ditions become favourable to growth, many of tlie 
 lifeless granules are cast away, and the living matter 
 escapes from the dead capsules, or much of the dead 
 matter may be taken up by the little bioplasm which 
 remained in a living state. This then rapidly in- 
 creases, and a mass of living matter having the 
 characteristic transparency and delicacy of appearance 
 soon results. Changes of the same kind occur in 
 bioplasts of all living things under certain alterations 
 of the conditions under which they grow and live. 
 
 Bioplasm and Formed Matter. — The passive formed 
 material around the bioplasm has resulted from changes 
 in the bioplasm itself. For^ned material cannot form. 
 Formed material is as different from the living matter 
 as the wood of the table from the living growing tree. 
 Some advocates of the physical theory of life call 
 these two different kinds of matter by the very same 
 name, and in this way they seek to make people 
 believe that there is no real absolute difference be- 
 tween the two — between that which lives and that 
 which has lived. Matter in these two very different 
 forms or states has been called by the same name, 
 protoplasm. Ikit even Mr. liuxley is obliged to 
 acknowledge that there is a difference, although he 
 has succeeded in hiding it for a time by the ingenious 
 device of telling people that the protoplasm is 
 ^^ variously modified ! '' And he informs his readers 
 by what forces the modification is effected. He says 
 the matter is modified by '* subtle influences." 
 
7^ 
 
 LIVING AND NON-LIVING. 
 
 According to the present philosophy, the living is 
 but modified lifeless. The watch then is but the 
 modified brass or steel. Grass is but modified earth, 
 man only modified dust. And the conversion of the 
 lifeless into the living, of the metals into the watch, of 
 the earth into the grass, and of the dust into man, is 
 effected not by any immaterial agents whatever — not 
 by such fictions as vitality, but by tangible demon- 
 strable, accurately defined means which physical 
 philosophers can render evident to the senses of 
 privileged persons, and which pass by the names of 
 " conditions," '* circumstances," and *' subtle in- 
 fluences." 
 
 At no previous period in the history of science have 
 such poor attempts to palm off as an explanation that 
 which is but an assertion, been so successful. Ne^ver 
 before have people been led to accept as explanations 
 such phrases as " variously modified." Anyone 
 accustomed to analyse the meaning of terms though 
 he possessed no scientific information whatever, could, 
 with very little trouble, resolve such explanations into 
 mere wind and words, but unfortunately in these days 
 people will not take trouble, and are too busy to study, 
 to analyse, to weigh, to reflect, — and more respect is 
 excited by the dress in which observations and argu- 
 ments are clothed, than by the observations and 
 arguments themselves. 
 
 Objections to the Idea of a Central Force or Pozuer 
 influe7icing the zuhole Organism. — Some have enter- 
 
A'O CENTRAL COVER XING FORCE. 
 
 n 
 
 tained the idea that the phenomena of the organism 
 of man and the higher animals, can only be accounted 
 for by admitting the action for some central guiding, 
 directing power, capable of influencing all the organs 
 and tissues of the body in somewhat the same way 
 as the master builder controls and directs the opera- 
 tions of his workmen. To such hypothetical influences 
 have been attributed many complex phenomena not 
 easily accounted for. But there is no good reason for 
 believing that any such central mysterious presiding 
 unity, force, property, or agency exists in some one 
 part of the body, and from the first dawn of life 
 influences regulates or controls the numerous and 
 highly complex phenomena simultaneously occurring 
 in every part of the living being. Regularity of 
 growth, Development of structure, Maintenance of 
 nutrition, and Harmony of action, can be other- 
 wise accounted for. It is therefore unnecessary to 
 resort to an h\'pothesis which invoh-cs the untenable 
 doctrine that lifeless tissue in the body is influenced 
 by some apocryphal central force which commands it, 
 which efl*ects changes, governs by some undiscovered 
 laws, and operates in some at present inconceivable 
 manner and in many difl"erent directions through 
 difl"erent kinds of matter, and at very varying distances 
 at the same in.stant. There is no better rea.son for 
 assuming 'Mife" to be located in one central spot, 
 than for the old view that it was established in the 
 blood, and was distributed elsewhere by this fluid. 
 
74 LIFE OF THE BIOPLASM. 
 
 The evidence I have advanced is, I think, conclu- 
 sive in showing that the only life in the body is 
 associated with bioplasm, some of which is to be 
 found in every tissue and organ in every part of the 
 body and in the blood at every period of life. The 
 only particles capable of being influenced by vitality 
 are those which are actually living ; in fact, the 
 matter of which the bioplasm itself consists. 
 
 But the different forms of bioplasm which are con- 
 cerned in the formation of different tissues and organs 
 of the body, possess special vital powers. The mar- 
 vellous manifestation of vital power by which man is 
 so widely separated from all other beings, does not 
 emanate from the bioplasm of the tissues generally, 
 but is limited to that of one special tissue. Neither 
 the bioplasm of bone nor that of muscle nor skin, nor 
 that which takes part in the formation of glands, is 
 the seat of those phenomena which absolutely sepa- 
 rate man from every other being in nature. There is 
 no reason to suppose that man's bone and muscle, 
 skin or glands, are in any essential points very 
 different from the corresponding structures in the 
 lower animals. But the particular kind of bioplasm 
 which takes part in intellectual action resides in 
 the brain of man alone. Between this and every 
 other form of bioplasm in man's body and elsewhere, 
 there is a transcendant difference, not, however, in 
 the matter of which it is composed, but as regards 
 the power with which it is endowed. 
 
Q UESTION OF NEK VE I NFL UENCE. 7 5 
 
 The bioplasm of all the different tissues of the body 
 has been derived by descent from one mass of bio- 
 plasm. After the bioplasts have once been detached, 
 they do not probably exert any direct influence upon 
 one another. That bioplasts with certain special en- 
 dowments or properties, eventually result by division 
 from the original bioplasm is certain, but neither this 
 fact nor the sort of power manifested, could have been 
 premised, however carefully the original mass of bio- 
 plasm had been examined. No knowledge of the 
 properties, characters, or composition of the matter 
 would have enabled us to form any conception of the 
 nature of the actions it was to perform. 
 
 It has been supposed by some that a central force 
 operates on the distant parts of the body through the 
 nervous system, but it is certain that neither the 
 arrangement of the tissues to form organs having 
 special functions, nor their actions, can be accounted 
 for by any governing or directing agency brought to 
 bear through the intervention of nerve. Indeed, this 
 tissue is not developed at the time the arrangements 
 in question are determined and carried into ettect. 
 The nervous system, instead of being developed first, 
 as it undoubtedly would be if it was to exercise the 
 function supposed, arrives at maturity the very last 
 of all the tissues. The highest form of bioplasm de- 
 veloped, and the only one which could be supposed 
 with any show of reason to exercise sway over all 
 the rest, and over the various tissues formed, is the 
 
y6 ^'0 CENTRAL POWER 
 
 very last to appear in the order of development, and 
 is not in action until long after many of the changes 
 supposed to be due to some central force or pov/er 
 have been com.pleted. 
 
 To this, the last produced, every other form of bio- 
 plasm appears to be in a manner subordinate. Other 
 forms seem to have been called into being in order 
 that this might exist. The tissues and organs, 
 ministering to the well-being of this highest form, are 
 perhaps not necessary to its actual existence, but are 
 required for preserving it in a state of integrity, 
 while some are employed as the instruments through 
 which alone such a power can express itself, and be 
 brought into relation with, or produce any effect 
 upon the non-living matter around it. 
 
 There is then no reason for adopting the conclusion 
 that the several tissues and organs which constitute 
 an organism are under the influence of any central 
 power capable of exerting any general control upon 
 all ; but after a careful examination of the facts ascer- 
 tained during the course of development and forma- 
 tion of a tissue, the inference is deduced that each 
 tissue is formed by living matter, which exerts no 
 direct action or controlling influence upon the living 
 matter of other and difl'erent tissues. Nor do the 
 particles of living matter of the same tissue exert 
 any direct influence upon one another. A long series 
 of changes occurring in regular pre-ordained order, 
 results at last in the complete development of a 
 
COXTROLLING ALL THE CHANGES. 
 
 77 
 
 texture. If, after development is completed, the 
 various conditions which have themselves in great 
 part resulted from the occurrence of previous de- 
 velopmental (vital) changes, are not disturbed, the 
 growth and action of the tissues is preserved. But 
 derangement of any one organ may interfere with the 
 proper action of others, either by influencing the 
 composition of the nutrient matter distributed to 
 all, or by disturbing the action of the nerves which 
 supply them. 
 
 Vital PJicnomena and Physical PJicnomena of a 
 Dijfcrent Order. — But it has been shown that the 
 phenomena of living matter are quite peculiar, and 
 are limited to the living matter which has been de- 
 tached from a mass of matter that was alive. A 
 wide distinction, therefore, ought to be drawn between 
 the vital pJicnomcna occurring in living matter and 
 the physical and chemical phenomena of the non-living 
 matter of living beings. The living is altogether 
 different from the non-living, and the former in no 
 way involves the existence of the latter (page lo). 
 In all living beings there are indeed two distinct sets 
 of phenomena, vital and physico-chemical. The vital 
 phenomena exhibit no analogy whatever to the 
 ph}'sico-chemical phenomena. The physical proper- 
 ties of the molecules are no more capable of being 
 lost than the molecules themselves, but the vital 
 properties may disappear and never again be mani- 
 fested by the same particular molecules. 
 
7 8 VITALITY. 
 
 It must, however, be acknowledged that we are not 
 able to adduce scientific evidence in proof that the 
 living can exist independently of the non-living, be- 
 cause the only evidence obtainable by us is obtained 
 from and through the material. Such a conception, 
 however, may present itself to the mind, and it seems 
 not unreasonable to believe that vitality may after all 
 belong to an order of activities or immaterial agefits 
 of which we can really learn nothing directly by the 
 assistance of our senses. Nevertheless, from the 
 effects of the supposed agency upon matter, we can 
 conceive of it as an actual existing power, and by 
 studying accurately the results of its working, why 
 should we not succeed in drawing a correct conclusion 
 concerning its nature and the mode of its action upon 
 matter } 
 
 Vitality. — The vital power transcends altogether 
 physical forces, for it controls, guides, directs, ar- 
 ranges, while the latter are controlled, are guided, are 
 directed, 8zc. Power may be said to guide and govern 
 force. Power is one thing and force another. 
 
 Some such view as that which I have endeavoured 
 to sketch concerning the nature of life will, I believe, 
 be found to constitute the only possible basis of re- 
 ligious thought regarded from the scientific and 
 philosophical side. Starting from a theory of vitality 
 we may, I apprehend, surely and almost infinitely 
 extend natural religious thought. We may find 
 after all the conflicting arguments shall have been 
 
17T,ll./TY. 
 
 79 
 
 thorougly considered, that reason and faith excite 
 and justify the same hopes and aspirations. 
 
 Vitality, it must be remarked, unHke any physical 
 agency yet discovered, manifests a remarkable capacity, 
 so to say, of prevision. The changes effected by 
 livins: matter at one time are carried out as it were in 
 anticipation of future change, as if the conception of 
 what ivas to be had been acted upon even while the 
 early changes were proceeding. Now this preparation 
 for future change is to be noticed from one end of the 
 living world to the other, and with marvellous dis- 
 tinctness as regards the operations of the intellect. 
 For it is unquestionable that in the case of the organ 
 of the mind of man, change paves the way for further 
 change, and each advance renders possible a further 
 onward development, the possibility of which was as 
 it were anticipated almost from the first, though this 
 could never have taken place had not certain pre- 
 paratory changes, as it were, cleared the way for 
 others which were to result in the formation of the 
 perfect structure. 
 
 By the increase or diminution in the number of the 
 bioplasts, the uniformity of the nutritive process as it 
 occurs in all tissues and organs, is preserved. Excess 
 of nutrition is stored up by the increase of bioplasm 
 in times of scarcity. 
 
 Vitality cannot be converted into mechanical 
 energy, or other mode of ordinar)^ force, nor can 
 any modes of force be converted into vitality. Vital 
 
So OPPONENTS OF VITALITY. 
 
 power is transmitted from living matter to non- 
 living matter witJioiit loss, and in a manner perfectly 
 peculiar, to which there is nothing analogous in the 
 non-living world. 
 
 The particular theory of vitality I have proposed, 
 has met with little favour at the hands of those who 
 have committed themselves to the modern phase of 
 retrograde Epicurean philosophy ; but the principles 
 on which this doctrine of vitality rests, have not been 
 disturbed. The position, indeed, is daily gaining real 
 strength. Not a few opponents very powerful, and 
 armed with weapons they well knew how to wield, have 
 retired from the assault, after having very loudly boasted 
 of what they were about to do. Some have preached 
 and some have prophesied, while others have affirmed, 
 that mighty changes are about to occur, and that 
 extraordinary revolutions in thought were being 
 effected under their auspices. Some have made the 
 strongest assertions concerning the facts and laws 
 they say they know, and have exactly defined the 
 precise direction in which the thought of the day is 
 tending, and indicated the line which is to guide its 
 tendency in the time that is to come. An expositor 
 of the physical theory of life has triumphantly de- 
 clared that many things may be going on beyond the 
 limits of the knowable, and has drawn attention to 
 the intense love of truth manifested by the sup- 
 porters of the physical doctrine of life, and their 
 hatred of that which, according to the physical dictum, 
 
OPPOXEXTS OF VITALITY. 
 
 is not true. Opponents of the vital theory have in- 
 dulged in exclamations about their own beliefs and 
 individual convictions, and in eloquent rhapsodies 
 about what might be seen if it were possible to see 
 under circumstances which unfortunately not only pre- 
 clude vision, but render existence impossible. After 
 abandoning the safe ground of observation and ex- 
 periment upon which they used to take their stand, 
 ardent supporters of the physical view appeal to the 
 discoveries of the imagination, to conjecture, and fancy, 
 while their teachings, gradually losing all potentiality, 
 will, it is probable, ere long pass into a latent state, and 
 eventually resume the form of primeval mist and 
 fiery cloud. 
 
 For some time past retrograde and long-discarded 
 ancient fancies have been revived and advanced in 
 support of doctrines as hopeless as the materialism of 
 Lucretius. Conjectures recently distilled from the 
 laboratory of the imagination have been forced upon 
 public attention, and though almost identical with 
 some views exploded centuries ago, being habilitated 
 in modern garb escape recognition, and api)ear to 
 many as new discoveries. Those who do not receive 
 them are called " narrow,^' " prejudiced," "orthodox," 
 and no wonder that in these days when the con- 
 sequences of such epithets, especially when hurled 
 with the force pure ph}-sicists can alone give, are so 
 disastrous to individuals, the advocates of the truly 
 
 G 
 
82 NATURE OF LIFE. 
 
 broad physical dogmas should be very numerous and 
 powerful* 
 
 After having studied the phenomena of living 
 matter for a length of time, and with all the ad- 
 vantages I could obtain, the conviction has been 
 forced upon my mind that vital phenomena must 
 be referred to the influence of an agency distinct 
 from the physical forces of nature. The hypothesis 
 I have been led to adopt is this. I suppose that 
 there is operating upon every particle of every kind 
 of living matter a forming, giiidingy directing power 
 or agency which is constantly at work, being trans- 
 mitted from atom to atom. This overcomes, and in a 
 moment, all the ordinary attractions, affinities, and 
 other properties of material molecules and in a man- 
 ner with which there is nothing comparable in the 
 non-living world. The difference between the lowest 
 simplest germ of living matter and the highest is 
 
 * Nevertheless, the amazuig confidence displayed by the disciples of 
 the new philosophy, when teaching their views to the unlearned, is very 
 remarkable. All science is now physics. Nothing that cannot be com- 
 prised under the term physical is either scientific or worthy of any 
 thought or consideration. As for the teachings of religion, history, art, 
 and what used to be called philosophy, they are not only absurd but 
 unworthy of refutation. All that these deserve is to be simply ignored, 
 as if they were not and never had been. The physical view, it is arro- 
 gantly asserted, is the "scientific view," the physical tendency of 
 thought is the scientific tendency, and so on. All other views and 
 tendencies are not scientific, but frivolous and ridiculous, and only to be 
 •tolerated for a time by physicists, out of respect for the too slowly waning 
 prejudices due to defective education and the weakness of the public 
 intellect. 
 
LIVING MA TTER. 
 
 83 
 
 not to be accounted for by any difference in compo- 
 sition, but only 'by supposing a difference in power, 
 which power has been derived and transmitted on- 
 wards, as it were, and without loss, from matter having 
 the same power. 
 
 Life is not a consequence of the organization of 
 matter, but the cause. Life precedes, instead of suc- 
 ceeding organization, conversion, formation. The first 
 impulse is exerted from within the living matter upon 
 the lifeless matter which is brought under the control 
 of vital power. The tendency is from within and is 
 not excited by actions going on around. Living matter 
 always tends to grow, move, &c., and when the restric- 
 tions under which it is placed are removed, the vital 
 phenomena are manifested with such increased acti- 
 vity as to be readily observable. In the present day 
 writers on the physical side are never tired of urging 
 us to believe that all those marvellous phenomena 
 peculiar to the living world are not peculiar to it at 
 all. Even Mr. Herbert Spencer does not hesitate to 
 assert that "■ organisms are Jiiglily differentiated por- 
 tions of the matter forming the earth's crust and its 
 gaseous envelope." Then he goes on to say, " The 
 chasm between the inorganic and the organic is being 
 filled up.'' But if this sort of statement is accepted as 
 proof philosophical we may surely prove anything wc 
 like and then assert that it has been proved philoso- 
 phically. He says further that there are organisms 
 the matter of whose bodies is " distinguishable from a 
 
 G 2 
 
84 PHYSIOLOGY NOT AN 
 
 fragment of albumen only by its finely granular cJia- 
 racterl' * The reader will observe that no facts what- 
 ever are adduced in support of these most cleverly 
 stated assertions. They do not result from observa- 
 tion or experiment, but rest upon authority only. 
 The " highly differentiated " is not more definite than 
 Mr. Huxley's "variously modified." Neither does 
 the author tell us by what the chasm between the 
 organic and inorganic is being filled up. But he is 
 wise in using the words organic and inorganic instead 
 of living and non-living ; for if these last were substi- 
 tuted for the former the assertion would not be ac- 
 cepted by anyone. But are not the "distinguishable," 
 the " fragment of albumen," and the " finely granular," 
 as employed in the above sentence, remarkable for 
 that vagueness and ambiguity which characterise the 
 recent developments of material speculations } 
 
 Physiology has been positively affirmed by Herbert 
 Spencer to be " an interpretation of the physical pro- 
 cesses that go on in organisms, in terms known to 
 physical science," but, seeing how very little physio- 
 logy can be explained by physical science, and that 
 of the essential changes which distinguish all living 
 from all lifeless things, not one can be explained 
 without " a psychical factor — a factor which no phy- 
 sical research Avhatever can disclose, or identify, or 
 get the remotest glimpse of," — it is clear that such an 
 interpretation of the "physical processes" as that 
 
 * Herbert Spencer, p. 137, vol. i. Second edition. 
 
INTERPRETATION OE TI/YSICAL TROCESSES. 85 
 
 indicated will teach us nothing whatever concerning 
 the physiological changes which distinguish all living 
 matter from all non-living matter. 
 
 No interpretation of physical processes helps us in 
 the least degree to explain the phenomena which 
 occur in the smallest particle of the simplest form of 
 living viattcr which are due to some agency which 
 acts in a direction from centre to circumference. No 
 physical explanation, it need scarcely be remarked, 
 will account for portions of a mass of semi-fluid 
 matter moving away from one another, and in many 
 different directions. In short, no physical explana- 
 tion will enable us to account for the phenomena of 
 growtJi, nutrition, multiplication, formation, conversiofiy 
 or other vital phenomenon. 
 
 Do not the words " physiology," " biology," 
 "pathology," "health," and "disease," impl)- pro- 
 cesses that are not simply physical, — imply in fact a 
 psychical factor.^ In spite of all that has been urged 
 to the contrary, there is not one of the actions pro- 
 perly called physiological, biological, pathological, 
 healthy, or diseased, that can be regarded as wholly 
 physical, mechanical, or chemical in its nature. 
 
 Not only so, but the very terms employed by the 
 physicists themselves in describing phenomena occur- 
 ring in li\ing beings, and stated by them to be physical, 
 actually imply properties or forces which arc not phy- 
 sical. The possession of advantages by certain fortu- 
 nate creatures in the struggle for existence, is often 
 
2,^ NON-PHYSICAL FACTORS. 
 
 spoken of as if it depended upon material changes only, 
 but the capability for enjoying or profiting by advan- 
 tages implies something other than physical forces and 
 properties. Living things have been said to resemble 
 crystals in growth and in some other points. But 
 fancy a crystal or other inanimate object enjoying 
 advantages, or strugglijig for existence, or the various 
 forms of carbon or calcareous spar being produced by 
 " natural selection ! " It will be found by any one who 
 takes the trouble to institute the examination, that 
 those who maintain the physical doctrine of life imply 
 by the very language they use the occurrence of non- 
 physical changes which they deny, while they are 
 constantly, but apparently unconsciously, calling in 
 the aid of non-physical factors, " subtle influences," 
 " tendencies," " capacities," " plasticity," and the like, 
 to account for phenomena which they pertinaciously 
 insist are physical. 
 
 It comes indeed to this, that unless we ignore the 
 facts of observation, or decline to make any attempts 
 whatever to account for the phenomena of living 
 beings, we must abandon physical, explanations which 
 have ever proved incompetent, and resort to hypo- 
 theses of another kind. We are really obliged to 
 assume in the case of any form of living matter the 
 existence of a power acting in a direction from within 
 outwards, and the facts necessitate the conclusion 
 that new vital power originates within the very centre 
 of a minute particle of the matter which is alive,— 
 
BIOPLASM COXCERXF.D IN MIXD. 87 
 
 which is ill the peculiar vital state. Tliere is no action 
 known to occur in non-livini^ matter of any kind 
 which can in any way be compared with this. Of the 
 nature of this vital power I can only form some dim 
 conception from the results of its action, but when 
 the necessity for the hypothesis of vital power shall 
 have been admitted, it is likely that rapid advance 
 will follow in our views concerning the influence 
 exerted by certain non-physical influences and agencies 
 in things li\'ing, which are now^ entirely ignored by 
 physicists. 
 
 Thoughtful persons have long felt extremely dis- 
 satisfied with the material doctrines of life now so 
 prevalent, and though doubtful concerning the precise 
 terms in which the influence of some non-physical 
 power ought to be stated, have acknowledged that the 
 facts rendered imperative the admission of an agency 
 belonging to an order very different from that in which 
 physical and chemical actions are comprised. Such 
 agencies will be advantageously considered now that 
 the depressing influence of the physical force tyranny 
 is happily once more ceasing to retard progress and 
 oppress thought. 
 
 Of the Action of the Bioplasvi concerned in Mental 
 Action. — The action of this the highest form which 
 bioplasm is known to assume, has been carelessly 
 attributed to physical and chemical cliangc. But 
 there is not a shadow of fact to justify the dogma 
 that mind is a form of force. The little bioplasts 
 
88 VITAL ACTIONS. 
 
 described in page 6i, and which are probably directly 
 concerned in every kind of intellectual action, are 
 exactly like the bioplasts which exist in every part 
 of the brain, and indeed elsewhere, at an early 
 period of development. They consist almost entirely 
 of living" matter, and retain the general characters 
 they exhibited from the first, while life lasts. They 
 vary in number at different periods of life, and increase 
 under certain conditions, like other forms of bioplasm. 
 They are unquestionably more numerous in some 
 spots of the grey matter than in others. Even in the 
 aged these bodies, representing the highest form living 
 matter is yet known to assume, still retain the cha- 
 racters presented by every form of bioplasm at an 
 early period of development. 
 
 Their exalted function and wonderful powers could 
 not possibly be predicated from a knowledge of their 
 microscopical characters or chemical composition, or 
 from a knowledge of the properties of the elementary 
 substances into which they may be resolved ; but in 
 this respect they agree with every known form of 
 living matter. These wonderfully endowed masses 
 of bioplasm would be called granular particles, and 
 ^\ould be classed with other bodies possessing similar 
 characters and of little significance. We should anti- 
 cipate that of all kinds of bioplasm known, that con- 
 cerned in mental nervous action would be most 
 evanescent, and prone to rapid change and disintegra- 
 tion after death. It is therefore not surprising that 
 
AV STKL'C'/rRE IiV LIVLYC MATTER. 
 
 89 
 
 ill many cases no traces of the delicate bioplasts I 
 have described should be discoxcred. I feel sure that 
 what I have been able to demonstrate affords but a 
 YQxy imperfect idea of the very <^reat number and 
 perfect order of the masses, as they exist in the living 
 state. Considering^ the nature of this form of bio- 
 plasm, we should anticipate that chany^e would almost 
 immediately follow the death of the indi\ idual, and that 
 these delicate bioplasts would be completely broken 
 down long before other kinds existing in the same 
 organism had ceased to manifest their \ital pheno- 
 mena. 
 
 Observation convinces us that the activities mani- 
 fested by different forms of living matter are depen- 
 dent, not upon peculiarities of structure or composition, 
 (for these exalted bioplasts look like many forms of 
 mucus and pus corpuscles, and move like small amcebcTe 
 and the simplest forms of living matter known), but 
 upon something quite distinct from these, and of a 
 different order altogether. The matter which mani- 
 fests vital actions possesses no structure, and it is 
 impossible to ascertain its chemical composition, and 
 the objection that structure migJit be discovered, and 
 chemical composition determined if our means of 
 investigation were more perfect than they are, cannot 
 be sustained, and ought never to have been advanced ; 
 for, first, the structure of very man}- textures formed 
 by living beings, and the chemical composition of the 
 same and multitudes of other substances, have been 
 
90 THE BRAIN NOT A GLAND. 
 
 actually ascertained and demonstrated by means now 
 at our disposal. If, therefore, the living matter pos- 
 sessed structure, we ought to be able to demonstrate 
 it. But, secondly, the possession of structural cha- 
 racter, and the exhibition of chemical properties, are 
 actually inconceivable in the case of any form of 
 matter manifesting vital properties, and, therefore, no 
 one w^ho was acquainted with the phenomena of 
 living matter w^ould have suggested that it was likely 
 to possess structure or consist of matter in the state 
 of a definite chemical compound. 
 
 Since it is at this time impossible to give a sufficient 
 explanation of the vital phenomena of the lowest 
 simplest forms of living matter in existence (amoeba, 
 monera, &c.), it is not surprising that those marvellous 
 changes occurring in the most exalted form of living 
 matter in man's organism should remain unexplained. 
 That the brain should be represented as a mechanico- 
 chemical apparatus in which immaterial thought is 
 elaborated in somewhat the same manner as a 
 material secretion is secreted by a gland, is, however, 
 not surprising when we take into consideration the 
 monstrous assertions w^iich have been made and 
 credited. Unproven and unprovable statements, such 
 as the dictum that living things are formed by force — 
 mind is correlated force — a mode of ordinary 
 energy — would scarcely be worthy of notice, were it 
 not that many dicta of the kind have been widely 
 accepted without due consideration, and without the 
 
RECENT VIEWS RETROGRADE. 
 
 91 
 
 suspicion tliat tlicir acceptance implies and invoK-es 
 very much that the accepter is aware of at the 
 time he assents. Na)-, in many cases the ph)-sical 
 views are received because it is supposed they are " in 
 advance" of other views. lUit this is a serious mistake. 
 The recent attempts to interpret vital phenomena by 
 physics are terribh' retrograde. Such an interpreta- 
 tion cannot be accepted unless well established truths 
 which cannot be overthrown are purposely ignored, 
 and old ideas, long since proved to be false, are 
 received as true. The advocates of the physical doc- 
 trine o{ life think to force us to revert to views 
 entertained two thousand years ago, and to submit to 
 be guided by an extinct and debasing Epicurean 
 philosophy. This appears to be the aim, and it 
 certainly is the tendency of the popular force philo- 
 sophy of the present day. 
 
 On the other hand, the doctrine of vitality points 
 in an opposite direction. The mind which contem- 
 plates vital power will naturally be led to ponder upon 
 the spiritual. The aspirations of the mind will pro- 
 gressively ad\ance, while the intellect increases in 
 strength, encouraged b\' the hope that it may succeed 
 in forming some conception of the manner in w hich 
 ever-present, ever-active power designs, guides, and 
 causes to be carried out the never-ceasing changes 
 in living matter. 
 
 0)1 tJic relation of tJic Nou-Liviui:; aud Living to 
 God. — The general conclusion which it is believed is 
 
92 THE RELA TIOiV OF THE 
 
 established by the arguments grounded on facts of 
 observation and experiment advanced in this work is 
 this : that between the living 2.nA the non-living there 
 is an essential — an absolute difference. So far from 
 being unreasonable, it would be in accordance with 
 reason to hold that the relation of ordinary non-living 
 matter to its Creator was not of the same order or 
 nature as that which subsists between God and the 
 power that influences matter in the living state. If 
 this be so, it is also reasonable to conceive that the 
 highest form of vital power of which we have know- 
 ledge and experience is in some way yet more closely 
 related to Deity than the vital power which animates 
 the lower forms of bioplasm or living matter. Un- 
 doubtedly all such considerations must be accounted 
 null and void as soon as the phenomena manifested 
 by every kind of living matter shall have been fully ex- 
 plained by ordinary forces and by the properties of the 
 material particles of non-living matter ! But since at 
 this time the aid of the hypothesis of vitality, or some 
 other such hypothesis, is required to account for the 
 facts of life, not only is it justifiable to extend our 
 speculations in the direction indicated, but it is for 
 many reasons most desirable that we should do so. 
 
 We are led to suppose by the facts known to us 
 that the properties belonging to the different kinds 
 of non-living matter were communicated to it at its 
 origin, and that each elementary molecule of non- 
 living matter has since retained and will ever retain 
 
LIVING AND NON-LIVING TO GOD. 93 
 
 its special characteristic endowments. On the other 
 hand it is conceivable, nay, the conclusion is almost 
 forced upon us, that the peculiar vital properties or 
 powers with which li\'in<; matter is endowed were not 
 acquired until after, perhaps not until \\:xy long after, 
 the creation of the matter itself There is indeed 
 distinct evidence of the existence of vital j)()wer of 
 many different kinds, and of change in power acquired 
 during the transmission of vitalit}' from particle to 
 particle, as well as of alteration in the proportion of 
 matter animated during any given time. 
 
 It is certain that the inorganic properties and 
 forces have remained the same from the first bejjin- 
 ning, and can never be added to or reduced, while it 
 is equally certain that vitalit}- has varied remarkably 
 in quality and distribution at different periods. It is 
 possible for us to conceive an entire cessation of \italit\' 
 — complete extinction of life after its introduction ; 
 but we cannot conceive of the extinction of matter and 
 its forces after the}' have once been created. No true 
 analogy can be shown to subsist between the different 
 properties and forces of non-living matter and the 
 different vital powers manifested by the various kinds 
 of living matter. The difference between copper and 
 sih er is a difference which exhibits no analog)' what- 
 ever, and is not comparable with, being in its nature dis- 
 tinct from, the differential characters that distinguish, 
 for instance, the cabbage from the oak. But tlie very 
 matter that was once cabbage might become at a future 
 
94 CESS A TION OF LIFE. 
 
 period of time oak. But it is, at least at this time, in- 
 conceivable that even in the most distant future, and 
 under any conceivable alteration of conditions, copper 
 should become silver, or tin assume the characters of 
 lead. In the one case there are indeed differences of 
 form, structure, character, numerous and remarkable 
 enough, without differences in substance, which will 
 account for the fact ; in the other there is difference 
 in substance in the very matter itself 
 
 If all life upon the earth were to cease, the pro- 
 perties and forces of the material particles would still 
 be retained. In that case the relations and combina- 
 tions of the elements would be altered, but any trans- 
 mutation in the matter itself would not occur. Nor 
 is there reason to think that the relation of our planet 
 to other worlds would be in the slightest degree dis- 
 turbed by such a catastrophe. 
 
 The reader will naturally inquire if, granting that 
 all existing life were completely destroyed, we are in 
 possession of facts which would justify the conclu- 
 sion that life would at some future time recommence. 
 It may be answered so far from this being the case we 
 have ample evidence to lead us to adopt the very 
 opposite conclusion — that life would never reappear 
 unless some power able to overcome ordinary tenden- 
 cies and capable of setting at nought natural laws 
 intervened. The idea of life is, then, distinct from the 
 idea of force, property, or matter. Living ?ind. formed 
 are two distinct qualities of matter which cannot co- 
 
STATES OF MATTER OF LIVING BEINGS. 
 
 95 
 
 exist in the same particles at the same time. Bioplasm 
 may acquire the properties o{ formed matter, l)ut to 
 do so it must die — it must lose its vitality. We hav^e 
 to notice three states of matter as regards living 
 beings — 
 
 I. The formless non-living state ; 2. The living 
 state ; and, 3. Tlie formed state, in which the matter 
 has acquired certain new characters and endowments, 
 and perhaps exhibits some peculiar form which was 
 impressed upon it by vitality. The {ox\\\ and struc- 
 ture of the matter in this formed state may be 
 accepted as proof that the very matter was once a 
 part of a being that lived — that it once lived, and that 
 its properties and form resulted directly from the 
 action of vital power. 
 
 Vitality is as distinct from matter and material pro- 
 perties as is ever- active mind from the inanimate 
 passive substance which it fashions, and upon which it 
 may impress its own fleeting, and perhaps but 
 momentar}' conceptions. The many efforts made to 
 prove that vitality is but a mode of force have been as 
 futile as the attempts to show that niintl is a property, 
 or a consequence of the changes in, the atoms, whose 
 movements are but the results of its influence and a 
 proof of its presence. 
 
 If these who try to make us believe that vitality is 
 derived from the ordinary properties of matter were 
 consistent, they would endeavour to instil the doctrine 
 that the maker of a machine was a consequence of 
 
96 THEORY OF VITALITY. 
 
 the properties of the materials employed in its con- 
 struction, and that by its action its constructor was 
 evolved. 
 
 Lastly, it may be remarked that the facts hitherto 
 discovered by physiological observation and experi- 
 ment do not in any way conflict with religious 
 thought. At this very time there would indeed be 
 no inconsistency in holding that a most devout believer 
 and eminent theologian might be at the same time an 
 advanced student in physiological knowledge. 
 
 Many statements recently urged with consummate 
 dogmatism by physicists who use very decided lan- 
 guage, but have had no experience whatever in other 
 than physical investigation, are undoubtedly incom- 
 patible with the acceptance of any religious beliefs, 
 but it has been shown that many of these statements 
 are unworthy of credit, and cannot be proved to rest 
 upon any foundation in fact. After having gained an 
 artificial and forced notoriety they will be discarded 
 as worthless except by the few who have determined 
 to entertain particular scientific views irrespective of 
 evidence. 
 
 A theory of vitality (non-material, psychical) will 
 alone enable anyone to account for the facts demon- 
 strated in connection with the life of all living things. 
 Although an immaterial agency cannot be v demon- 
 strated to the senses, the evidences of the working of 
 such a power are so distinct and clear to the reason 
 that the mind which remains unfettered by the tram- 
 
TIIROR y OF J yTA LTTY. (^ 7 
 
 mels of dogmatic physics, and is free to exercise judg- 
 ment, will not den}' its existence. 
 
 Although the mental vital action is the highest 
 manifestation of vital power of which we have any 
 cognizance, it is not perhaps b)' any means the highest 
 manifestation of which the human mind is able to 
 conceive. As all vital power affects the molecules of 
 matter, and makes them take up certain positions, 
 and so arranges them that certain definite combina- 
 tions shall take place, we ma\' surely conceive the 
 existence of a vital power capable of causing the 
 particles it guides to be so arranged as to form at 
 length complex, and it may be very elaborate struc- 
 tures, performing the most delicate work, and in a 
 most perfect manner. Such arguments, it seems to 
 mc, further justify a belief in the operation of a 
 higher agency whose power transcends that of mind 
 in as great a degree as this last transcends ordinary 
 vitality. It is by following out such a line of thought 
 that we ma}'. 1 think, hope to obtain, e\en from tliis 
 lower physiological stand-point, some dim conception, 
 it may be, of the nature of Deity, and some idea of 
 the relation of Deity to man's scjul and l)()d}', to the 
 various grades of lower life, and ti) matter in the 
 nr)n-living state. 
 
 Harrhon nnJ \iins Prinlrri in Ordii>nr\ in Hrr Mnir.tv Si \fnitin\ liinr. 
 
NEW ILLUSTRATED WORKS. 
 
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 ON VITAL PHENOMENA, AND ON THE MINUTE 
 
 STRUCTURE OF LIVING BEINGS IN 
 
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 1. LIFE, MATTER, AND MIND ; OR PROTOPLASM. 
 
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 *#* This work is partly original and partly controversial. 
 
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 MENT. 
 
 %* 
 
 All these IVorks contain the results of the Author s original in-,esti^^i- 
 tions. They ore illustrated 'oith up7oards 0/2,000 F.Ui^ravini^s, copied from the 
 actual objects, all of -o hie h ha-\- been dra^un on 'u>ood by the Author himself or 
 under his immediate superintendence. 
 
 London : J. cV A. ClICRCllILL. 
 
%th- Thousand, 21 s. 
 HOAAT TO ^WORK AA^ITH THE MICROSCOPE. 
 
 The Fourth Edition, very much enlarged. 
 
 This work is a complete manual of microscopical manipulation, and 
 contains a full description of many new processes of investigation, with 
 directions for examining objects under the highest powers. 
 
 With Sez'enty Plates, tJidiidiug many new Figures, some ofivhich are coloured. 
 
 CONTENTS :— 
 
 I. The Simple and Compound Microscope — Choice of a Microscope- 
 Travelling and Dissecting Microscopes — Clinical, Pocket, and Class 
 Microscopes. 
 11. Examination of Objects by Reflected, Transmitted, and Polarized 
 Light — Dark ground Illumination — Illumination — On Drawing and 
 Measuring Objects — Ascertaining the Magnifying Power of Object 
 Glasses. 
 
 III. Instruments required for Dissection — Valentin's Knife, &c. — Cements 
 
 — Preservative Solutions. 
 
 IV. On making Cells — Brunswick Black, and different forms of Glass and 
 
 other Cells for preserving Specimens. 
 V. On examining objects in the Microscope— Muscular Tissue — Of making 
 Minute Dissections — Hardening Textures — Of examining Objects in 
 Air, Water, and Canada Balsam. 
 VI. Of Preserving different Structures permanently — Of separating Deposits 
 from Fluids. 
 VII. Of Injecting — Apparatus, &c. — Of Natural and Artificial Injections — 
 Of the advantage<= of Transparent Injections — Of the Prussian Blue 
 Injecting Fluid — Injecting Mollusca, Insects, &c. 
 VIII. Of the use of Chemical Reagents in Microscopical Investigation — 
 Fallacies to be guarded against — Presence of Extraneous Substances. 
 IX. Of taking Photographs of Objects. 
 
 X. New method of preparing all Tissues for Microscopical Investigation. 
 XI. On the use of very high Magnifying Powers. 
 XII. Of making and recording Microscopical Ol^servations. 
 
 Tables for practising the use of the Microscope and Manipulation. 
 Apparatus required in Microscopical Investigation. 
 
 Microscope Makers, Preparers of Specimens, Artists, Printers, Litho- 
 graphers, &c. 
 
 "The Author, both in the text and in the explanations of the engravings, 
 has endeavoured to restrict himself, as. far as possible, to giving hints and 
 directions which may be practically useful to the student while lie is at work." 
 — Extract from the Preface, 
 
 HARRISON, PALL MALL. 
 
 ii.