Extrinsic Conditions.—By showing that every vital manifestation results from the conflict of two factors: the extrinsic or physico-chemical conditions which determine its appearance, and the intrinsic or organic conditions which regulate its form, Claude Bernard dealt a mortal blow at the old vitalist theories. For he has not only asserted the close dependence of the two kinds of factors, but he has shown them in action in most physiological phenomena. The study of the extrinsic or physico-chemical conditions necessary to vital manifestations teaches us our first truth—namely, that they are not infinitely varied as might be supposed. They present, on the contrary, a remarkable uniformity in their essential qualities. The fundamental conditions are the same for the animal or vegetable cells of every species. They are four in number:—moisture, the air, or rather oxygen, heat, and a certain chemical constitution of the medium, and the last condition, the enunciation of which seems vague, becomes more precise if we look at it a little closer. The chemical constitution of media favourable to life, the media of culture, obeys three general laws. It is the knowledge of these laws which formerly enabled Pasteur, Raulin, Cohn, and Balbiani to provide the media appropriate to the existence of certain relatively simple organisms, and thus to create an infinitely valuable method for the study of nutrition, etc.,—namely, the method of artificial cultures, numerous developments of which have been shown us by microbiology and physiology.
The Optimum Law.—It has been said, and it is more than a play on words, that the conditions of
