400 SESSION V. DISCUSSION 



Prigogine's theorem [4] concerning the minimal rate of development of entropy in the 

 course of stationary irreversible processes specifics a simultaneous maximal conversion 

 of potential energy into working processes. By virtue of its working processes an open 

 system has the power of self-conservation, the ability to renew continually its structure 

 which is continually being submitted to the disintegrating and destructive action of the 

 heating processes of friction [5]. 



The complete equation for the motion of a whole system consisting of a collection of 

 open systems and the medium surrounding them is of the following form. 



AHcat., = A J f ;,',V (r) e^'df + BMTç^t. - T„)At + C.(Tcau - T„) (18) 





 For the rate of development of entropy in the whole system we get : 



1+ At 



^J f!,er.(r)e"df 



_ A5(f)irre v. cat., _ ^ dX/t- -r \ / \ 



^o ^y ^^ + BkiTcat.- To) (19) 



where 



I- At 



A f f ^'^ e>'t df ^^' 

 J per. (T) ^ ^'^ v; 



P(t) 



_ t _ rate of outflow of entropy 



A . " \f from all the open systems. 



All open systems have the property of continually augmenting their working processes. 

 The co-existence of this property, which increases the demands on the potential energy 

 of the system by all the open systems, with the property of the constant demand for 

 potential energy by a single open system, indicates that each individual open system must 

 have the power of increasing itself. 



We have thus reached the conclusion that the open system possesses three cardinal 

 properties of living matter: (i) Self-conservation based on the antientropic character of 

 the working processes; (2) Enlargement (function e^') and (3) a rhythmic nature of the 

 working processes (function f^'^^. (^)) [6]. 



The specificity of the working processes which give rise to the outflow of entropy from 

 the open system depends on the nature and rate of the chemical transformations. In an 

 open system under stationary conditions where alternative paths are available for the 

 chemical reactions, the final direction of the irreversible process is determined by the 

 principle of the maximal rate for the chemical reaction [7]. We have already interpreted 

 Prigogine's principle of the minimal rate of development of entropy in an open system 

 as being the principle of the maximal conversion of potential energy into working pro- 

 cesses. Prigogine's principle, in conjunction with the principle of the maximal rate for the 

 chemical reaction, as applied to open systems, indicates the following property: 



When there are several open systems, the system which will acquire the greatest share 

 of the potential energy available will be that system in which the intensity of the working 

 processes is greatest under the given stationary conditions of the surrounding medium. 

 Thus the working processes carried out by an open system acquire the status of an 

 evolutionary factor. 



REFERENCES 



1. DE Bonder & van Rysselberghe, Thermodynamic Theory of Affinity. Stanford 



University, 1936. 



2. R. C. L. BoswoRTH, Heat Transfer Phenomena. Pitman Press, London. 



3. Ya. N. Frenkel', Kineticheskaya teoriya zhidkostei, Izd. Akad. Nauk S.S.S.R., 



Moscow, 1945. 



4. I. Prigogine, An Introduction to the Thermodynamics of Irreversible Processes. New 



York, 1955. 



5. J. Belehradek, Protoplasma, 48(1), 55, 1957. 



6. W. Seifriz, a Symposium on the Structure of Protoplasm, Iowa State Univ. Press, 



1942. 



7. A. Dean & C. N. Hin.shelwood, chapter in Progress in Biophysics, vol. 5, pp. 1-40. 



Pergamon Press, London, 1955. 



