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
