THE ENERGY CONCEPT OF LIFE ii 



or work precedes some kind of form, rendering it probable 

 that energy also precedes and controls the evolution of life. 



The total disparity between invisible energy and visible 

 form is the second point which strikes us as in favor of such 

 a conception, because the most phenomenal thing about the 

 heredity-germ is its microscopic size as contrasted with the 

 titanic beings which may rise out of it. The electric energy 

 transmitted through a small copper wire is yet capable of mov- 

 ing a long and heavy train of cars. The discovery by Bec- 

 c^uerel and Curie of radiant energy and of the properties of 

 radium helps us in the same way to understand an energy 

 conception of the heredity-germ, for in radium the energy 

 per unit of mass is enormously greater than the energy quanta 

 which we were accustomed to associate with units of mass; 

 whereas, in most man-made machines with metallic wheels 

 and levers, and in certain parts of the animal machine con- 

 structed of muscle and bone, the work done is proportionate 

 to the size and form. The slow dissipation or degradation of 

 energy in radium has been shown by Curie to be concomitant 

 with the giving off of an enormous amount of heat, while 

 Rutherford and Strutt declare that in a very minute amount 

 of active radium the energy of degradation would entirely 

 dominate and mask all other cosmic modes of transformation 

 of energy; for example, it far outweighs that arising from the 

 gravitational energy which is an ample supply for our cosmic 

 system, the explanation being that the minutest energy ele- 

 ments of which radium is composed are moving at incredible 

 velocities, approaching often the velocity of light, /. c., 180,000 

 miles per second. The energy of radium differs from the 

 supposed energy of life in being constantly dissipated and de- 

 graded; its apparently unlimited power is being lost and scat- 

 tered. 



