THE ENERGY OF EVOLUTION. 479 



chemists. The discovery that the living organism is 

 not necessary for the production of these substances 

 has led to the hasty conclusion that the supposed dis- 

 tinction between "organic" and "inorganic" energy 

 does not exist. But the elaboration of these substances 

 is not accomplished by anagenetic or "vital" energy, 

 but by a process of running down of the higher com- 

 pound protoplasm, which is catagenesis. No truly 

 anagenetic process has yet been imitated by man. 



All forms of functioning of organs, except assimi- 

 lation, reproduction, and growth, are catagenetic. That 

 is, functioning consists in the retrograde metamorpho- 

 sis of a nitrogenous organic substance or proteid with 

 the setting free of energy. The proteid is decomposed 

 in the functioning tissue into carbon dioxide, water, 

 urea, etc., and energy appears in the muscle as con- 

 traction, in the glands as secretion, and in all parts of 

 the body as heat. The general result of physiologic 

 research is, that the decomposition of the blood is the 

 source of energy, while the tissue of each organ deter- 

 mines the character of that energy. That the tissue 

 itself suffers from wear, and requires repair, is also 

 true, but to a less extent than was once supposed. 



In the anagenetic process of the growth of the em- 

 bryo the case is different. Here the processes of func- 

 tioning of organs are in complete abeyance, the plasma 

 of the oosperm is not sensibly broken down in chemical 

 decomposition, but it is in great part elaborated into 

 tissues and organs. All the mechanisms necessary to 

 the mature life of the individual are constructed by the 

 activity of the special form of energy known as growth- 

 energy or Bathmism. It is the modifications of this 

 energy which constitute evolution, and it is these to 

 which we will hereafter direct our attention. Its sim- 



i 



