102 Causes and Course of Organic Evolution 



Instead of the above accepted explanation, we would suggest 

 that such seeds possess in their richly protoplasmic and food- 

 storing cells — greatly as have schizophyceous cells — a locked 

 up mass of intra-molecular biotic energy that very slowly under- 

 goes letting down, it may be through long years, but that we 

 have no special and exact test for recognition of this energy 

 as yet, unlike the means that can be adopted for recognition of 

 electric and chemic activity. So for each species or family 

 of seeds very different lengths of time may elapse for dormant 

 phenomena, but a maximum period is reached after which 

 death occurs. If it be asked equally for dessicated schizophy- 

 ceous masses, for species of bacteria, or for dormant seeds, 

 what change occurs to bring about this maximum, we would 

 reply that our present information would incline us to consider 

 that steady loss of water gradually converts certain of the 

 colloid constituents of the protoplasm, or possibly constituents 

 of the reserve food, into irreversible hydrogels. 



From the standpoint of energetics we do not yet know what 

 exact physical change occurs when thermic energy is converted 

 into lumic, nor when lumic or thermic is converted into chemic, 

 nor when any one of these is converted into electric. So, 

 granted the existence of a biotic energy, it need not be regarded 

 as a point of weakness if we say that we do not know how any 

 of the lower energies become converted into it. 



But when we prove experimentally that a definite and mod- 

 erate amount of thermic energy will cause union of binary 

 bodies which contain the same elements as are needed for 

 organic structures, such as CaO and CO2 into calcium carbonate 

 (CaC03); that a definite amount of chemic energy expended 

 on two bodies, one a simple the other a binary substance 

 such as oxygen and ammonia, will cause formation of the ter- 

 nary compound nitrite of ammonia, according to the formula: 

 4NH3-h302 = 2NH4N02 + 2H20; that, when a ternary com- 

 pound such as ferrous sulphate (FeS04) i^ dissolved in a solution 

 of potassium cyanide (KCN) and heated, the combined thermic 

 and chemic effect is to link up constituents of these into potas- 

 sium ferrocyanide according to the formula: FeS04+6KCN = 



