Death and resurrection from the point of view of the cell-theory

by Gustaf Björklund

The result obtained through such investigations already made, stood in direct opposition to the immediate observations. Although Harvey’s formula finally was accepted, it was nevertheless taught that no specific life-force exists.

This contradiction was never fully understood or emphasized during the last century, and the reason was that the materialistic tendency was so predominant that nobody noticed that the question of life-force is the innermost main point, around which not only generatio spontanea and omne vivum ex vivo, but also their consequences, materialism and idealism, are centered.

But in order to deny life-force as an independent principle, some scientific facts to build upon were necessary and these were not lacking.

Before we state these facts we will in a few words describe the historical situation.

According to the previously prevailing vitalistic doctrine a specific life-force existed, present and active in all organic processes. The conceptions in regard to these processes were, however, very dim, and the reason was that the problem of combustion had not yet been solved.

This problem may be said to be the very key to the chemical explanation of an organism. The ancient mystery of fire was first solved by Lavoisier after Scheele and Priestly had discovered oxygen. The solution of this complicated question not only became the starting point for a new and rapid evolution of chemistry, it also almost immediately threw a clear light on the innermost recesses of the organism.

The elementary constituents of the organism and their origin were known before, and it now became also possible to explain the great store of energy that the living being possesses. To assume a specific life-force seemed superfluous. Life-force, from having been the indispensable explanation of organic phenomena, commenced more and more to be regarded as a “back-way for ignorance,” one “of those many side doors that dull heads employ when they find it too laborious to think about something that they do not understand.”

It was natural that the materialists would eagerly embrace these ideas. From the few words with which Büchner introduces his chapter about life-force, we obtain a clear insight into the opinions that are held on this subject in the world of natural science. “The mystic notions,” says Büchner, “that have confused the philosophy of science were invented by a time possessing but a slight knowledge of nature. To these notions, which have been thrown overboard by a later exact scientific research, belongs first of all the so-called life-force. Scarcely has there ever existed an hypothesis more detrimental to the cause of science than this singular organic force presented in contradistinction to the inorganic forces, gravity, affinity, light, electricity, magnetism, etc. If science were forced to acknowledge such an hypothesis, all we have said about the immutability of the natural laws and of the mechanical order of the universe would collapse, and we would be forced to admit that a higher hand interferes in the course of nature, dictating exceptional laws that defy all calculations. A break would be found in the natural structure of the world, science would despair, and all physical and psychical research cease. Fortunately science has not been obliged to yield to the irrational pressure of the dynamists, but, on the contrary, has won everywhere a splendid victory; it has lately gathered such a mass of self-evident facts to its support that life-force nowadays wanders an empty shadow along the boundaries of natural science. All those who have made a closer study of any of the branches of science that deal at all with the organic world, agree, almost to a man, in the condemnation of life-force, and the very word is so detested by science that it is always purposely avoided.”

We may now let Büchner present the real, scientific evidence why life-force must be charged to the ignorance of a time when knowledge of nature was but slight. In this way the reader will perhaps obtain a more direct and at the same time an historic view of the materialistic mode of thinking.