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When du Bois-Reymond came to the topic, it was still musty with doctrines of vitalism and mechanism, forces and fluids, irritability and sensibility, and other arcana of biology.

This biocomplexity has often been mistaken for vitalism, the misconception that biological processes are dependent on a force or principle distinct from the laws of physics and chemistry.

This vitalism fit in well with the world view that Goethe had learned from Spinoza, who held that nature is God and God nature.

Darwin’s theory went into eclipse at the turn of the century, Bernard’s vitalism died out altogether, but du Bois-Reymond’s mechanist approach laid the foundation of modern biology.

According to the historic concept of vitalism, all living things possess a sort of ‘vital force’ that is beyond scientific detection.