Generality of Vital Phenomena.—If we add that Claude Bernard opposed the narrow opinion, so dear to early medicine, which limited the consideration of vitality to man, and the contrary notion of the essential generality of the phenomena of life from man to the animal, and from the animal to the plant, we shall have given very briefly an idea of the kind of revolution which was accomplished about the year 1864, the date of the appearance of the celebrated l'Introduction à la médecine expérimentale.
The ideas we have just recalled seem to be as evident as they are simple. These principles appear so well founded that in a measure they form an integral part of contemporary mentality. What scientist would nowadays deliberately venture to explain some biological fact by the intervention of the evidently inadequate vital force or final cause? And who, to
- [Footnote: tests required in the problem before him. The following is
an instance which happened since the above pages were written:—Several years ago a chemist announced the existence in the blood serum of a ferment, lipase, capable of saponifying fats—that is to say, of extracting from them the fatty acid. From this he deduced many consequences relative to the mechanism of fermentations. But on the other hand, it has been since shown (April 1902) that this lipase of the serum does not exist. How did the error arise? The author in question had mixed normally obtained serum with oil, and he had noted the acidification of the mixture; he assured himself of the fact by adding carbonate of soda. He saw the alkalinity of the mixture, serum + oil + carbonate of soda, diminish, and he drew the conclusion that the acid came from the saponified oil. He did not make the comparative test, serum + carbonate of soda. If he had done so, he would have ascertained that it also succeeded, and that therefore as the acid did not come from the saponification of the oil, since there was none, its production could not prove the existence of a lipase.]
