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THE STORY OF THE LIVING MACHINE
A REVIEW OF THE CONCLUSIONS OF MODERN BIOLOGY IN REGARD TO THE MECHANISM
WHICH CONTROLS THE PHENOMENA OF LIVING ACTIVITY
BY
H.W. CONN
PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY IN WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY
AUTHOR OF THE STORY OF GERM LIFE, EVOLUTION OF TO-DAY,
THE LIVING WORLD, ETC.
_WITH FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS_
NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1903
COPYRIGHT, 1899,
By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.
PREFACE.
That the living body is a machine is a statement that is frequently made
without any very accurate idea as to what it means. On the one hand it
is made with a belief that a strict comparison can be made between the
body and an ordinary, artificial machine, and that living beings are
thus reduced to simple mechanisms; on the other hand it is made loosely,
without any special thought as to its significance, and certainly with
no conception that it reduces life to a mechanism. The conclusion that
the living body is a machine, involving as it does a mechanical
conception of life, is one of most extreme philosophical importance, and
no one interested in the philosophical conception of nature can fail to
have an interest in this problem of the strict accuracy of the statement
that the body is a machine. Doubtless the complete story of the living
machine can not yet be told; but the studies of the last fifty years
have brought us so far along the road toward its completion that a
review of the progress made and a glance at the yet unexplored realms
and unanswered questions will be profitable. For this purpose this work
is designed, with the hope that it may give a clear idea of the trend of
recent biological science and of the advances made toward the solution
of the problem of life.
MIDDLETOWN, CONN., U.S.A.
_October 1, 1898_.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
INTRODUCTION--Biology a new science--Historical
biology--Conservation of energy--Evolution--Cytology--New
aspects of biology--The mechanical
nature of living organisms--Significance of the new
biological problems--Outline of the subject 1
PART I.
_THE RUNNING OF THE LIVING MACHINE._