Year: 1878

nomeDa of life into chemical action. In
opposition to those Stahl contended that the
real life force was not only unlike the chem
lcal force OF ordinary matter, but that the
two kinds of force were hostile to each other
Life persisting only so long as the vital or
soul force was dominant, death being the
ultimate victory of the physical forces


StahPs Immediate successors were soon
compelled to reject the idea that vital force
was an intelligent force; intelligence was
relegated to the soul; but they retained the
notion OF antagonIsm between vitality and
the laws OF mechanics. physics and chemis.
try. From this point of view Bichat defined
life as The group of functions which resist
death"


This idea of absolute diversity between
the laws of living bodies and those which
appear In dead matter is still very pre-
valent one; but advancing science has shown
1T to be unfounded in reality. IL it were
true that in living bodies the physical and
vital properties and processes are in constant
and direct antagonism; or, as Bichat has
said, the physical properties fettered by
the vital properties are perpetually checked
in the phenomena they would tend to pro-
duce," then the intenser the life of any or
ganism the weaker and slower should be the
purely physico-chemical operations going
on within it But the exact contrary IS the
rule. Whatever restraints or lessons the
organic processes directly diminishes vital
activity; on the contrary, the more active
the life the more rapid are the material
changes In the organism. In the words of
Cloude Bernard, the alleged opposition.
antagonism, or conflict between vital phe-
nomena and physico-chemical phenomena is
an error which the discoveries of modern
physics and chemistry have thoroughly ex-
ploded. Life works in harmony with the
other forces. Is it like them, or entirely
different


Obviously the real nature of life must be
sought tor in the peculiar phenomena with
which life is associated The essential char
acterlstic of living bodies is nutrition, the
product of two factors, one tending to build
up the organization, the other to break it
down-counting as part of the organism the
food supply at any moment In the blood.
Every manifestation of life involves, i'm this
sense, organic destruction. Hence arises De
Blainville's definition: Life is a two-fold
internal movement of decomposition. gen.
| eral and continuous at once. In other
words, life Is continuous dying" But
there is period when the formative element
OF lie Is predominant. In the young or
| ganism the ur-building manifestly exceeds
the breaking down of the organic structure.
| And at still earlier period the phenomena
| of germinal evolution are the chief if not
| the only, manifestations of life. These.
| however, do not differ in kind from the
Phenomena OF nutrition; indeed, nutrition
| has been defined as continuous generation.
Whence arises that impulse? Is it a
| special, extra material impulse? or is it only
| a mode of action of the general force of


nature? Are the mysterious properties of
the germ the result of molecular combina-
| ton, as the properties of water arise from
| the combination of its constituent gases?
Here the final battle of biology must be
| fought. So long as life is surely known to
proceed only from antecedent life, Just so


long will it be impossible to give a decisive


answer to the question. what is life? The


mystery of life lies in the evolution of
| power of the germ. IL life is vital spark


handed down from organism to organism
from the beginning, then it transcends the
| ken OF physical science, and must ever re-


main mystery. If, on the other hand, life


can be proved to bt gin de novo in suitable


mixtures of demonstrably dead matter, as
| Bsstian and other observers assert, that mo-


moment life ceases to be the only unique
| phenomenon in nature, and takes rank


among the powers and potencies of ordinary


matter. No wonder the controversy assumes


at times bitterness foreign to purely scien-
| tific discussions. The issues at stake are of


traRscendent importance, for upon the sup


ernatural nature and origin of life hang the


most revered beliefs the most momentous


theories, the most pretentious systems of
| the age.