ELECTRICITY IN THE PHENOMENA OF ANIMAE LIFE. 445 



Moreover, nothing- i)reveiits the parts of such a system being arranged 

 so as to produce apparent automatism; such would be the impression 

 conveyed by the innate character of the reflex actions arising- from the 

 structure conferred upon the system. 



As for the sense impressions, the predominant part assigned them 

 in such a distribution of energy will be to act upon the regulating- 

 apparatus, and by their means to modify the conditions of output of 

 energy. 



As the effect of influences from without acting' upon the organism will 

 be to oppose or to favor organic activity in those parts where such 

 influences have long tended to favor such activity, the organs of spe- 

 cial sense will have been formed and developed, and will have become 

 the normal stimulators of vital action. 



In such a system, provided the normal organism be not called upon 

 for more than a part of the energy which it can produce, the actual 

 production must essentially correspond with the demand for it; the 

 physiological battery has, in the sensory organs, a true regulating 

 apparatus capable of adjusting the amount of vital oxidation to the 

 direct or indirect excitations which come from the environment; the 

 whole matter appears as if the stimulations of sense impressions set 

 up conditions more favorable for the genesis of energy by increasing 

 nerve conductivity, perhaps by a swelling up and conseiiuent increase of 

 contact or compression of the material of the axis cylinders. The flow 

 of energy thus produced at the seat of excitation will necessarily be 

 returne<l like an echo to the other end of the line, acting upon the mus- 

 cle in whicli energy is utilized, and the increase of muscular contrac- 

 tion will be the physiological exi)ression of this echo in the nuiscle of 

 the signal given by the sense impression. - - - 



III. 



THE MECHANISM OF VITALITY. 



I. OF TIIK tnAIIAt;TEUISTIC.S OK VITAL ACTIVITY. 



Raving thus pictured to myself the conditions of the working of the 

 ner\H)us system in a living animal, working which rs dependent upon 

 the distribution of electric energy generated by i)hysicochemical reac- 

 tions in the protoplasm, I have been led to examine how it is i)ossible 

 to conceive of the origin of vitality in this system; that is to say, the 

 origin of the reactions producing electricity in the very heart of the 

 primitive protoplasm. 



Reasoning- from one inference to another, I have come to propose in 

 definite form the following thesis: 



Life is essentially characterized by the existence of a system of con- 

 tinuous reactions, the necessary elements of which are ceaselessly repro 

 duced and which take place in th.e midst of an appro[)riate medium. 



