The concepts and theories of modern physics / By J.B. Stallo.

  • John Stallo
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The concepts and theories of modern physics / By J.B. Stallo. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    73/376 (page 23)
    'With few exceptions, scientific men of tlie present day hold the propositton, tliat all physical action is me- chanical, to be axiomatic, if not in the sense of being self-evident, at least in the sense of being an induction from all past scientific experience. And they deem the validity of the mechanical explanation of the phe- nomena of nature to be, not only unquestionable, but ab- solute, exclusive, and final. They believe that this validity is not conditioned, either by the present state of human intelligence, or by the nature and extent of the phenomena which present themselves as objects of scientific investigation. Thoughtful men like Du Bois- Keymond have at times suggested that it is not unlim- ited ; but the only limits assigned to it arc those of the general capacity of the human intellect. Although they concede that there is a class of phenomena—tliose of organic life — which, under their characteristic as- pect, are wholly irreducible by the mere aid of mechan- ical principles, it is, nevertheless, insisted that these principles constitute the only intellectual solvent that can be applied to them, and that the residue which re- sists the solution is to be relegated for ever to that end- less array of facts which are proof against all the re- agents of scientific cognition. It is claimed that, if it is impossible theoretically to construct a living organism out of molecules or atoms, and mechanical forces under the guidance of the principle of the conservation of en- ergy, the laws of electric or magnetic coercion, the first and second laws of thermo-dynamics, etc., the attempt to frame a theory of life in harmony with the laws con- trolling ordinary material action must be utterly aban- doned. Such a claim ought not, in my judgment, to be admitted without a careful examination of the grounds upon which it is made. It is my purpose,