Note 43 — Chapter IV · THE RELATION OF MAN TO NATURE.

I know it is the fashion to ridicule the use of the terms vitality, vital force, as a remnant of an old superstition; and yet the same men who do so use the terms gravity, electricity, chemical force, etc. Vital force is indeed correlated with other forces of Nature, but is none the less a distinct form of force, far more distinct than any other unless it be the still higher form of psychical, and therefore it better deserves a distinct name than any lower form. Each form of force gives rise to a peculiar group of phenomena, and the study of these to a special department of science. Now, the group of phenomena called vital is more peculiar, more different from other groups than these are from each other, and the science of physiology is a more distinct department than either physics or chemistry, and therefore the form of force, which determines these phenomena, is more distinct and better entitled to a name than any physical or chemical force.