106 Causes and Course uf Organic Evolution 



But, if bacterial or nostacaceous or like material be gradually 

 dried and kept in such state for some months, we deal con- 

 tinuously vrith so. much matter in a highly complex though 

 passive molecular state. This however retains the capacity, 

 when moistened and exposed to suitable temperature, of ex- 

 hibiting in a short space of time currents of energy that start 

 transformation of the molecules and reestablish all the phe- 

 nomena of life. Now this surely means one of three things: 

 either (a) that some kind of energy remained potential but 

 latent in such organisms during the entire period of dessica- 

 tion; or (b) that the molecular constitution of the matter itself 

 was such that, when wetted, it acted as an absorber from \\'ith- 

 out of, and conductor for some kind of, energy; or (c) that 

 some "mysterious" property resided in the matter that might be 

 called the "life property" and which was capable of causing energy 

 to flow through the dormant matter under suitable conditions. 



The last of these alternatives is a meaningless refuge of 

 ignorance when no better explanation can be got. The second 

 alternative is unsatisfactory since it takes for granted that 

 such organic matter is able to exist for long periods of time 

 in a dormant state, and yet, when suitable environal conditions 

 presented, that it could become active again, and assimilate 

 afresh. But, if there is any one fact in relation to such dormant 

 organic matter that is more clear than another, it is that all 

 such matter becomes dead and inert after a measurable period 

 due evidently to the dissipation and removal of some ener- 

 gizing constituent that it formerly possessed. 



If therefore we now turn to the first of these alternatives, 

 we must confess that such energies as the thermic, lumic, 

 chemic, or electric would, according to our present knowledge of 

 these, be dissipated or reduced to a uniform heat level, long 

 before the expiry of the time named above. Possibly to this 

 statement the only exception might seem to be chemic energy. 

 But it is well kno^Ti that though we mix somewhat dry egg- 

 substance, starch, sugar, or other organic bodies, that might 

 all seem to contain al^undant chemic energy, these only decay 

 "hen moisture, oxygen, and appropriate heat are supplied. 



