The mystery of life : an essay in reply to Dr. Gull's attack on the theory of vitality in his Harveian oration for 1870 / by Lionel S. Beale.

Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The mystery of life : an essay in reply to Dr. Gull's attack on the theory of vitality in his Harveian oration for 1870 / by Lionel S. Beale. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    matter exercising in man the highest and most exalted function, which is destroyed if very sHght change occurs in the complex conditions under which it has been ordained that it shall live—it seems extraordinary, considering the very confident assertions that have been made by those who advocate the physical doctrine of life, that not one single case to justify the asser- tion that vital actions are to be explained by physics and chemistry should have been brought forward. It is idle and misleading to call heat, and light, and electricity, and motion vital forces when they are manifested in living beings, and physical forces when operating in the outside world. The 7iame given to a force ought not to be changed according as the seat of its operation varies. But by this proceeding the advocates of the physical doctrine try to make people think that the only forces operating in living bodies are physical, and that these are the only forces which their opponents refer to when they speak of vital power. The physical philosophers ignore entirely, or deny the phenomena which they cannot explain by physics, and seek to hide truly vital phenomena
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