94 ORGANIC FUNCTIONING 



tissues, grains, seeds, woods, leaves, stalks, peat, lignite, coal, 

 oil, etc., tends to accumulate on the earth. 



356. The Improbability of Coupled Energy-transform- 

 ations. Coupled reactions occur : 



(a) When living organisms (such as plants) unconsciously use 

 solar radiation to effect reactions such as would not occur in 

 their absence. (But most of the solar radiation falling on the 

 ocean, deserts, sands, rocks, etc., of the earth's surface is simply 

 dissipated) ; 



{b) Where experimenters, acting consciously and deliberately, 

 couple together reactions and energies. But their total effect 

 is infinitesimal relatively to the radiation that degrades of 

 itself) ; 



(c) At random, say, in the turmoil of energies involved in the 

 ejection of volcanic materials, or in plutonic and metamorphic 

 processes in the earth's crust, etc. (But such effects do not 

 often occur, so far as we know, and not relatively to the extent 

 to which dissipative effects occur.) 



Therefore coupled reactions that delay universal entropy- 

 increase do not often occur compared with those in which 

 entropy-increase freely occurs — or they are improbable. 



36. ON TYPICAL ANIMAL METABOLISM 



The typical animal organism does not, so far as we know, 

 assimilate carbon and nitrogen in the way the plant does, nor 

 is it known to utilize solar radiation of high frequency as a source 

 of energy. It can utilize solar radiation, when the latter has 

 degraded into heat (low-frequency radiation) in that it " warms 

 itself " in the sun. It cannot make use, as foodstuffs, of 

 CO 2, OH 2, inorganic compounds of nitrogen, etc., in the way 

 that the typical plant does. 



The typical animal that is full grown and is not reproducing 

 nourishes itself by ingesting proteins, fats and carbohydrates 

 obtained as, or from, the tissues of living or dead animals and 

 plants. It transforms these substances in its own body in such 

 ways that they are ultimately chemically degraded into CO 2, OH 2, 

 urea and other nitrogenous residues. The general course of the 

 chemical transformations is one of oxidation and during them 

 available energy is set free. 



