MAN AND SCIENCE: A REPLY. 



67 



science, which bottles up the heat from our bi- 

 ceps and other muscles, carries it off to the north- 

 pole or elsewhere, to be "fully restored" when 

 the gases are exploded. We must confess this is 

 no laughing matter either for the muscle or for 

 the moral consequences involved in the " trans- 

 ference." 



Before examining in detail this marvelous 

 statement, I would premise one observation. I do 

 not concede that the whole train of argument 

 even touches the essence of the question of 

 automatism. I hold that even were all the facts 

 here stated fully established, the question of orig- 

 ination of action would be left in precisely the 

 same position as before. But I am content, for 

 the sake of the argument, to assume it to be other- 

 wise, and to allow that the scientific statements 

 here (and elsewhere) made are not only neces- 

 sary but adequate, for the demonstration of man's 

 clock-like nature ; and as such, I propose to in- 

 quire how far they are founded upon science, or 

 - how far they come under the head of flights of 

 fancy. 



The answer is so very simple that I hesitate 

 somewhat to give it, lest its very plainness, in 

 reply to so lengthy and so eloquent an elabora- 

 tion, should cause its immediate rejection without 

 consideration ; as it is very much the custom in 

 these latter days to accept science rather on 

 authority than on investigation. Nevertheless, 

 whatever may be the case in ethics, it is generally 

 allowed that in exact science there is some abso- 

 lute standard of truth, independent of the source 

 whence it emanates. Encouraged by this consid- 

 eration, and with a full consciousness and recog- 

 nition of the importance of all the work that has 

 been done in illustration of this question, I vent- 

 ure to assert that the whole force of the lengthy 

 quotation above given is destroyed by the fact of 

 its being in direct contradiction to the well-known 

 and established facts of science — a contradiction as 

 absolute and astounding as it is inexplicable. 



From this sweeping verdict I wish only to ex- 

 cept one position. No one would for a moment 

 suppose that animal muscle performs mechanical 

 work without what may be called consumption of 

 fuel. This is one of the most familiar facts in 

 physiology; and this consumption would neces- 

 sarily be the same on any hypothesis of action, 

 . whether automatic or free volitional. Beyond 

 this, I do not hesitate to say that the facts or 

 statements above quoted are evolutions of indi- 

 vidual consciousness rather than representations 

 of Nature. 



Prof. Tyndall states that when the contrac- 



tion of the muscle performs external work, " the 

 blood and tissue consumed .... have not de- 

 veloped in the muscle their due amount of heat. 

 A quantity of heat is . . . missing, etc." I can 

 only say in reply to this, what j^hysiologists very 

 well know, that there is no heat whatever 

 missing, and that the fuel consumed has here, as 

 elsewhere, developed the due amount of heat. It 

 is in this particular that animal tissue differs es- 

 sentially from all machinery ; and the difference 

 is fundamental and conclusive. There is no trans- 

 ference of " the muscular heat from its local 

 hearth to external space." Such a transference 

 may easily be seen in any case to be impossible. 

 Where the fuel burns, there the heat is given out. 

 There is no such reversal as stated of the miracle 

 of the burning bush — the body is consumed, and 

 burns. The incandescence of the platinum wire 

 neither is, nor can possibly be, the "equivalent" 

 of the heat "missing" (which is in no sense 

 whatever missing) from the muscle ; and we can- 

 not by any process obtain a temperature of " many 

 thousand degrees " from the temperature of the 

 muscle, which is something below 100°. And it 

 follows naturally that we cannot bottle up heat, 

 which is not missing, and cany it to the north- 

 pole, to be restored there by explosion and re- 

 combination of the gases. 



If what I here assert be true, it is evident that 

 the human muscle differs essentially from all ma- 

 chines, properly so called, and that any theory of 

 animal automatism founded upon imaginary anal- 

 ogies between them utterly breaks down. All 

 machines develop more or less internal heat, ac- 

 cording as they perform less or more external 

 work : (H-J-W) is a constant quantity. With 

 muscle it is not so : the more external work is done, 

 the more heat is developed in the muscle : (H-}-W) 

 is therefore not a constant quantity, but, in mathe- 

 matical language, it is a direct function of the 

 variable W. As W increases so does H, although 

 not in an absolutely constant degree ; for, after a 

 certain amount of work has been done, any in- 

 crease in it is attended by a somewhat greater 

 ratio of increase in H. 



Supposing that I am able to establish this 

 position, which I have set forth with as much di- 

 rectness as possible, the result would be that the 

 Equivalence of Force attack upon anthropomor- 

 phism has experienced as disastrous a check as 

 did formerly the Protoplasm column. But it will 

 naturally be expected that the demonstration shall 

 be complete, and shall not rest upon mere asser- 

 tion. I propose, therefore, very briefly to sketch 

 what has been done by physiologists, and to note 



