xvi PREFACE 



energy. The earliest adaptations we know of are designed for 

 the capture and storage of energy. 



Matter in the state of relative rest know^n as plant and 

 animal form is present, but, in the simplest and lowliest types 

 of life, form does not conceal and mask the processes of energy 

 as it does in the higher types. Similarly, the earliest fitness 

 we discover in the bacteria or monads is the fitness of group- 

 ing and organizing different kinds of energy — the energy of 

 molecules, of atoms, of electrons as displayed in the twenty- 

 six or more chemical elements which enter into life. 



In searching among these early episodes of life in its origin 

 we discover that four complexes of energy are successively 

 added and combined. The Inorganic Environment of the sun, 

 of the earth, of the water, of the atmosphere is exploited thor- 

 oughly in search of energy by the Organism: the organism 

 itself becomes an organism only by utilizing the energy of the 

 environment and by coordinating its own internal energies. 

 Whether the Germ as the special centre of heredity and repro- 

 duction of energy is as ancient as the organism we do not 

 know; but we do know that it becomes a distinct and highly 

 complex centre of potential energy which directs the way to 

 the entire energy complex of the newly developing organism. 

 Finally, as organisms multiply and acquire various kinds of 

 energy, the Life Environment arises as a new factor in the 

 energy complex. Thus in the process of the origin and early 

 evolution of life, complexes of four greater and lesser energy 

 groups arise, namely: inorganic environment: the energy 

 content in the sun, the earth, the water, and the air; organism: 

 the energy of the individual, developing and changing the cells 

 and tissues of the body, including that part of the germ which 

 enters every cell; heredity-germ: the energies of the heredity 

 substance (heredity-chromatin) concentrated in the reproduc- 



