Note 24 — ORGANIC NATURE’S RIDDLE. BY ST. GEORGE MIVART.

Thus Kirchenoff has said (Prorectoratsrede, Heidelberg, 1865), “The highest object at which the natural sciences are constrained to aim is the reduction of all the phenomena of nature to mechanics;” and Helmholtz has declared (Populaer Wissenschaft liche Vorträge, 1869), “The aim of the natural sciences is to resolve themselves into mechanics.” Wundt observes (Lehrbuch der Physiologie des Menschen), “The problem of physiology is a reduction of vital phenomena to general physical laws, and ultimately to the fundamental laws of mechanics;” while Haëckel tells us (Freie Wissenschaft und freie Lehre) that “all natural phenomena without exception, from the motions of the celestial bodies to the growth of plants and the consciousness of men ... are ultimately to be reduced to atomic mechanics.”