54 Spikazines 



In either case the effect will be a sorting out of 

 different kinds of molecules or ions from one an- 

 other or an accumulation of molecules or ions of 

 the same kind so as to build up osmotic or hydro- 

 static pressures or electric potentials. These 

 processes will take place in contravention to the 

 second law of thermodynamics because the energy 

 which is thus rendered available will not have 

 been obtained entirely from the oxidation of food 

 material but partly from the heat of the sur- 

 roundings. 



Vital energy of this sort should not be con- 

 fused with vital force, for the two have nothing in 

 common. The principle of vital energy is entirely 

 consistent with the laws of nature and supple- 

 ments rather than contradicts them, whereas the 

 doctrine of vital force assumes the existence of 

 some mysterious power which is supposed to act 

 in contravention to the laws of nature to control 

 such processes as metabolism, growth, and repro- 

 duction. Vital energy is within the realm of the 

 comprehensible and the possible existence of such 

 a form of energy has been suggested by physicists 

 long before the conception of the spirazine 

 hypothesis, whereas vital force is supposed to be 

 something which is incomprehensible to the 

 human mind, and the existence of which would be 

 contrary to all the principles of science. 



