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BOOK I.

THE FRONTIERS OF SCIENCE—GENERAL THEORIES OF LIFE AND DEATH—THEIR SUCCESSIVE TRANSFORMATIONS.

Chapter I. Early Theories.—II. Animism.—III. Vitalism.—IV. Monism.—V. Emancipation of Scientific Research from the Yoke of Philosophy.

CHAPTER I.

EARLY THEORIES.

Animism—Vitalism—The Physico-Chemical Theory—Their Survival and Transformations.

The fundamental theories of science are but the expression of its most general results. What, then, is the most general result of the development of physiology or biology—that is to say, of that department of science which has life as its object? What glimpse do we get of the fruit of all our efforts? The answer is evidently the response to that essential question—What is Life?

There are beings which we call living beings; there are bodies which have never been alive—inanimate bodies; and there are bodies which are no longer