Energies of the Organic World 81 



upbuilding work, that is to energize the inert ether particles 

 that form the centers of the atomic and molecular structures, 

 we have suggested that heat, light, chemical affinity, and elec- 

 tricity, as phases of energy, are unequal to the task in hand. 



We consider, then, that during that extended period of the 

 archsean age, when conditions suited to, and stimulating for, 

 the origin of organisms had evolved, a more perfect concen- 

 tration of energy occurred, as a part of and a result of many 

 cooperating factors of advancing cosmic evolution. This seems 

 to have had its first beginning, probably during the earhest 

 part of the archsean epoch, in the formation of hydrated bodies 

 from more primitive crystalloids which started that peculiar 

 type of inorganic body, the colloid. In this, distinguished 

 chemists consider that a redistribution of electric energy can 

 be traced round each molecule, that we consider was probably 

 the forerunner and anticipator of the biotic energy that we 

 regard as the basic energizer of organisms. 



By a process of action and reaction that we wall later picture 

 as proceeding through the entire organic scale, the colloidal 

 molecules of ancient thermal areas became increasingly charged 

 with greater and more condensed amounts of energy, and in 

 utilizing this became themselves linked up into more and more 

 complex and inter-related molecules, at the summit of which 

 we place protoplasm, so far as the activity of biotic energy acted. 



One outstanding quality of this energy is that it can effect 

 highly intricate molecular combinations, and yet give off a 

 relatively small amount of heat. This characteristic alone 

 would indicate its superior nature as an energizer, and equally 

 indicates that it can absorb enormous amounts of constitutive 

 energy during elaborative work. 



But at this stage the question might well be asked: Can 

 such energy be conducted or conveyed from one place to an- 

 other, as in the conduction or convection of electricity, hght, 

 or heat? Though anticipatory to our treatment of the sub- 

 ject, it may be replied that, in all cases of transplanting, graft- 

 ing, transfusion, parasitism, and related phenomena in plants 

 and animals, conduction or convection of biotic energy is an 

 essential requisite of the process. 



