57 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The entire result of development is preserved in the synthetical in- 

 tricacies of matter and ether, the sensible and the supersensible sub- 

 stratum. All developmental achievement is embodied in what we 

 chemically call complexity of composition. The more complex a sub- 

 stance, the greater its intrinsic value, the more specific its inherent 

 power, and the less congruous in consequence its response to outside 

 influences. 



We cannot make any considerable progress in the philosophy of 

 reality, of which the understanding of our own life is the consumma- 

 tion, before we have first formally reenthroned into their actual seat of 

 power the sovereign energies, so strangely slighted during the long 

 reign of visionary potentates the eras of anthropomorphism and meta- 

 physics. 



Now that we are avowedly appealing to Nature for knowledge, it 

 behooves us to become natural in our mode of thinking. To fix our 

 attention merely on changes and their relation to each other is to grasp 

 at the shadow of reality. That which changes is in every respect the 

 substance, the potentiality and actuality in the case ; and it is essen- 

 tially its specific molecular constitution which determines the nature 

 of the change qualitatively and quantitatively. The scientifically ascer- 

 tained, most specific behavior shown by the various substances, with 

 regard to their manifestation of different modes of force, or even of one 

 and the same mode of force, is in itself abundant proof that that which 

 we call forces are merely specific modes of reaction on the part of the 

 various substances. 



This somewhat lengthy but indispensable discussion on the nature 

 and seat of force will save us the far greater labor of attempting to 

 account for life by computing the foot-pounds of mechanical energy 

 of which it is supposed to be the transformation ; or of seeking a stand- 

 ard for the valuation of brain-power, or any other vital activity, by ac- 

 curately determining the units of heat obtainable from the substances 

 which exhibit these activities. 



" But," it will be asked, " if combustion is in no way essential to the 

 manifestation and production of motility, what part is actually played 

 by the oxygen, which is known to permeate all protoplasm, and which 

 is inhaled in such vast quantities by higher organisms ? " 



Oxygen is the mighty scavenger in the vital economy, the general 

 purifier and clearer. Everywhere among the crevices and interstices of 

 the vital nexus it lies in wait, seizing upon all stray stuff waste prod- 

 ucts of function and unassimilable matter of all kinds and converting 

 the same forthwith into harmless and eliminable compounds. Besides, 

 the heat evolved during this entirely depurative process helps essen- 

 tially to compose the calorific medium of the organism. But oxidation 

 is in no manner directly conducive to vitality. Within the organism 

 combustion merely hides away death ; does not kindle the flame of 

 life ; belongs to the domain of destruction, not to that of construction. 



