EVOLUTION AND THERMODYNAMICS 



Engels^ in a famous definition, "is the mode of motion of the 

 albuminous substances." So also in earlier essays, I was always 

 deeply impressed by a fact so obvious that it never seemed to have 

 occurred to many biological philosophers, namely, that proteins, 

 carbohydrates and fats are never found in colloidal combination or 

 even alone anywhere outside living organisms.^ It was therefore 

 irrelevant to demand of biologists that they should show the 

 existence of similar phenomena in the inorganic world before apply- 

 ing the methods of physics and chemistry, as far as they would go, to 

 the phenomena of life. 



Goethe had faced this problem: 



"Wer will was lebendigs erkennen und beschreiben, 

 Sucht erst den Geist herauszutreiben, 

 Dann hat er die Telle in seiner Hand, 

 Fehlt leider nur das geistige Band. 

 ' Encheiresin Naturae nennt's die Chemie, 

 Spottet ihrer Selbst, und weiss nicht wie." 



which we might translate: "He who wishes to understand and 

 describe living organisms first drives their spirit out of them, and 

 then in his hands he finds nothing but the dead parts; the spiritual 

 bond which united them has disappeared. Chemistry calls this 'the 

 Manipulation of Nature,' insulting herself by so doing, and not even 

 realising she does so." The investigation of this "spiritual bond" by 

 the methods of natural science is the task of biology, and we have 



denen jene im Fall der Organisierung abzuleiten sind. Der Bauplan der Lebewelt ware 

 daher schon in der unbelebten Natur vorgezeichnet. Neben der Eignung der Umwelt 

 nach Temperatur, Feuchtigkeitsgrad, Kohlensauregehalt, usw., ist vor alien die Elektron- 

 neutralitat des Kohlenstoffs wesentlich, die die Bildung der homoiopolaren Verbindungen, 

 das Aneinanderlagem langer und beliebig verzweigter Ketten von Radikalen veranlasst, 

 womit die unendliche Mannigfaltigkeit der organischen Stoffe gegeben ist. So entstehen 

 Molekiile von bedeutender Grosse und hinreichender Stabilitat. Ihre koUoidalen Eigen- 

 schaften veranlassen widerum den gelatinosen Zustand der Zellen, der einen mittleren 

 Grad des Diffusionsaustausche im Inneren ermoglicht; hiermit ist ein wichtiger Faktor 

 der Reaktionsgeschwindigkeit der biologischen Umsetzungen gegeben, usw." 



Cf. also R. S. Lillie's remark, "It seems clear that the concept of form and the concept 

 of stability are closely allied. No form would be possible in chaos" (Philos. of Sci., 1937, 

 4, 220). Successive states of form in embryonic development are now treated from the 

 point of view of stability levels (see my Biochemistry and Morphogenesis^ pp. 112 ft.). 

 Consider also an animal in a vessel isolated from any environment. If the energy present 

 throughout the vessel were suddenly to be concentrated in the animal its temperature 

 would rise to, say, 10,000° and it would die. Thermodynamic order v.ould have increased 

 and biological organisation would have decreased. 



^ F. Engels, Anti-Duhring^ p. 94. 



2 Cf. SB, London, 1929, pp. 207 ft". 



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