238 ON CHEMICAL ENERGY. 



is hastened which may be regulatecl from a central organ, this muscle 

 will accomplish a corresponding- amount of work. When however the 

 supply of energy is exhausted, the influence of a catalystor can uot 

 force it to any further manifestations. The same is true for all other 

 activities of organisms. 



I can uot assume to have made clear the mystery of life in the previ- 

 ous pages, but I believe that I have solved a more apparent problem, 

 namely to show that the scieuce which is seemingly abstract and for- 

 eign to actual life, and which has developed during the last years 

 under the name physical chemistry, is a science of the highest real 

 imijortauce. If it will be possible for this scieuce to throw light upon 

 that most difficult of all the problems of nature, the mystery of life, how 

 much easier will it be to exi)lain by means of the new i)rinciples the by 

 far much easier problems of technical chemistry which have not been 

 solved so far. It is (juite uatural and self-implied, but we must never- 

 theless repeat again and again that ''The more i)erfect the theoretical 

 evolution of the sciences becomes, the greater will be the scope of their 

 explanations and at the same time the greater their practical impor- 

 tance." 



I 



