Mechanism, life and personality : an examination of the mechanistic theory of life and mind / by J.S. Haldane.

  • Haldane, J. S. (John Scott), 1860-1936.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mechanism, life and personality : an examination of the mechanistic theory of life and mind / by J.S. Haldane. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    generally. The finer regulation of growth, nutrition, muscular and nervous functions, was believed to be regulated by the ‘vital force.’ Muller had himself taken a prominent part in disproving by his microscopical ob¬ servations on glands the mechanistic theories previously prevailing with regard to secretion, and his numerous observations on growth and development had led him in the same direction. Among the younger physiologists about the middle of the century there arose, how¬ ever, a very strong reaction against vitalism and in the direction of mechanistic theories. Schwann, the discoverer of the fact that the bodies of the higher animals are made up of cells, believed that he had also discovered that cells are deposited from the body liquids by a process akin to crystallisation. This hypothesis, of course, struck at the very roots of vitalism. Within the next few years attack after attack was aimed at all the apparent strongholds of vitalism. Du Bois Reymond published observations pointing to an electrical theory of propagation of nerve impulses; Ludwig and others devised new