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Part 23

The Breath of Life · John Burroughs — chapter 23 of 24 · ~387 words · public domain

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Protoplasm, vitality of, 169; creative, 286.

Radio-activity, 66-70, 132.

Radium, 61, 201. See also Beta rays.

Rainbow, 70.

Ramsay, Sir William, 191, 192.

Rand, Herbert W., on the mechanistic view of life, 89, 90.

Russia, 250, 251.

Salt, crystallization, 276, 277.

Schaefer, Sir Edward Albert, 73; his mechanistic view of life, 133-138.

Science, delicacy of its methods and implements, 60, 61; limitations of its field, 94-100, 104; cannot deal with life except as a physical phenomenon, 161, 162; does not embrace the whole of human life, 162, 163; inadequacy, 163-166; cannot grasp the mystery of life, 173, 175, 176, 234-236; cannot deal with fundamental problems, 242, 243; concerns itself with matter only, 264; inevitably mechanistic, 265, 266; views the universe as one, 267, 268, 271-274; the redeemer of the physical world, 269-271, 276; spiritual insight gained through, 278.

Sea-urchins, Loeb's experiments, 147.

Seed, growth of, 217, 218.

Soddy, Frederick, 46, 66; on vital force, 133; on rainbows and rabbits, 174; on the relation of life to energy, 177-180; on the atom, 197, 198; on atomic energy, 204.

Spencer, Herbert, 218, 240; quoted, 15, 16; on the origin of life, 26; on vital capital, 34, 35.

Spirit, common view of, 274, 275.

Spirituality, evolution of, 284.

Sugar, grape, 208.

Sunflower, wild, force exerted by, 19.

Thomson, J. Arthur, 270.

Thomson, Sir J. J., on electrons, 197; photographing atoms, 199, 200.

Tropisms, 11.

Tyndall, John, his view of life, 28-30, 160, 162, 231; his "molecular force," 42, 133; his Belfast Address, 64, 219; and the "miracle of vitality," 105; on energy, 161; on growth from the germ, 217; an idealist, 219, 220; on Goethe, 221; on matter, 260; on crystallisation of salt, 276, 277; on incipient life in inorganic nature, 277.

Universe, the, oneness of, 267, 268; a view of, 289.

Uranium, 67.

Verworn, Max, 25, 79, 146; his view of life, 30, 31, 73; his term for vital force, 145.

Vital force, constructive, 7, 38; inventive and creative, 7; resisting repose, 40; as a postulate, 99-103; its existence denied by science, 133; convenience of the term, 144; other names, 144-146. See also Life.

Vitalism, making headway, 32; reason for, 71, 72; Moore's scientific vitalism, 106-112; type of mind believing in, 218-223. See also Life.

Vitality, the question of its reality, 140-143; degrees of, 241, 242. See also Life.

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