CHAPTER XIX 



A NEW COMPOSITE CAUSO-MECHANICAL THEORY OF 

 EVOLUTION (THE TETR AKINETIC THEORY) 1 



HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN 



THE ENERGY CONCEPT OF LIFE 



While we owe to matter and form the revelation of the existence 

 of the great law of evolution, we must reverse our thought in search 

 for causes and take steps toward an energy conception of the origin 

 of life and an energy conception of the nature of heredity. 



So far as the creative power of energy is concerned, we are on sure 

 ground: in physics energy controls matter and form; in physiology 

 function controls the organ; in animal mechanics motion controls 

 and, in a sense, creates the form of muscles and bones. In every 

 instance some kind of energy or work precedes some kind of form, 

 rendering it probable that energy also precedes and controls the 

 evolution of life. 



The total disparity between invisible energy and visible form is 

 the second point which strikes us as in favor of such a conception, 

 because the most phenomenal thing about the heredity-germ is its 

 microscopic size as contrasted with the titanic beings which may rise 

 out of it. The electric energy transmitted through a small copper 

 wire is yet capable of moving a long and heavy train of cars. The 

 discovery by Becquerel and Curie of radiant energy and of the proper- 

 ties of radium the energy per unit of mass is enormously greater than 

 the energy quanta which we were accustomed to associate with units 

 of mass; whereas, in most man-made machines with metallic wheels 

 and levers, and in certain parts of the animal machine constructed of 

 muscle and bone, the work done is proportionate to the size and form. 

 The slow dissipation or degradation of energy in radium has been 

 shown by Curie to be concomitant with the giving off of an enormous 

 amount of heat, while Rutherford and Strutt declare that in a very 

 minute amount of active radium the energy of degradation would 

 entirely dominate and mask all other cosmic modes of transformation 



1 From H. F. Osborn, The Origin and Evolution of Life (copyright 1916). Used 

 by special permission of the publishers, Charles Scribner's Sons. 



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