570 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



of the first drop of protoplasm, and the vivification of the first cell, tht 

 tendency has been, as the necessary result of natural selection, to con- 

 centrate force. In the history of evolution there is nd passing from 

 lower to higher forms — no foldings, no involutions, without an increase 

 of power; and by the same law this development must continue until 

 the highest point of physical energy is attained. 



Our ordinary discoveries teach us that force can be multiplied by 

 a multiplication of the elements or organs evolving force. The sim- 

 plest child knows how to obtain two pounds instead of one by putting 

 another weight in the scale ; and the electrician obtains more power 

 by adding another jar, or another plate, or another cell to his battery. 

 In like manner ISTature has in various directions seized every means to 

 increase and concentrate what for convenience is termed mtal force. 

 For there is the same tendency of the forces to aggregation that we 

 see in matter. 



Watching the progress as we have ascended the scale from the 

 first evolution of life, the greatest concentration of force yet reached in 

 organic life is in articulate creatures — or, as we may call them, by a 

 name of more general application, segmentarians. A segmentary such 

 as a centipede, a bee, a lobster, or even the humblest worm, is as truly 

 a compound zoary as any other collection of zooids, whether coelente- 

 rate or molluscoid ; and no argument is needed to show a physicist 

 that the closely-united segmentarian zoary evolves more force than 

 the looser aggregation of a branch of ascidians, however highly organ- 

 ized the individuals of the latter may be. There is more force evolved 

 from the gigantic oak consisting of such a closely-united system as 

 presented by the nodes, and which is capable of appropriating such 

 volumes of inorganic matter, than in the loose sheets of uUa or pro- 

 toGoccus creeping upon damp walls and slimy pools. Again, in phys- 

 ics, we may multiply force, not only by the number of o\^r elements, 

 but by their size and arrangement. In galvanism two large elements 

 or cells may be made to exhibit greater energy than many small ones 

 in the aggregate of equal superficial extent, yet not precisely the same 

 energy. It is modified as well as increased. Organic Nature presents 

 us exactly as good illustrations of this law as the experiments of Mr. 

 Grove and Dr. Faraday. 



The first experiment, so to speak, of Nature to multiply force from 

 the coelenterate or monosegmental creature, the last stage arrived at 

 in our progress, is by multiplying the segments upon one or more axes. 

 When upon more than one, as in annuloida, Nature seems to break 

 down early, on account of the complication of the machinery, and soon 

 seeks greater simplicity. This is attained, first, by selecting one lon- 

 gitudinal axis, and multiplying tlie units or elements of organization 

 and force indefinitely. In some worms the number of segments is in- 

 credible. Instances of iulidse, according to Mr. Newport, have one 

 hundred and fifty rings, at least during embryonic life ; and, by the 



