BiOTic State of Energy 107 



It is remotely supposable that electric energy might, by 

 specially condensed action, build up quinary and hexary mole- 

 cules, and after their formation continue to renew them, if 

 sufficient like energy were added to replace that which is con- 

 stantly being dissipated. But absolutely no proof of such 

 exists. As already suggested, however, from the relative dissi- 

 pation ratio, of thermic, lumic, and electric energies, there is 

 strong warrant for assuming that dried protoplasmic substance 

 is the seat of a slowly dissipating and highly perfect energy 

 that can only travel along complex protoplasmic molecules 

 as conductors, but which after a measurable time dissipates 

 therefrom, unless means be adopted for increasing its quantity, 

 and in the process for adding to the matter along which it 

 travels. This we have called the biotic energy. 



When we pass in review the Acaryota as a simple and primi- 

 tive group that is possibly traversed by a biotic energy, the 

 feature that rises before the mind is a material or morphological 

 series of forms possessed of certain common characters and 

 also of certain recognizable specific differences. And in our 

 monographs, text-books, and memoirs these are the details 

 that are alone emphasized. But, while this is rightly so, when 

 we think only of visible or descriptive evidences of evolutionary 

 modification, if we attempt to reach the basic cause or causes 

 of such morphological details, we perceive and must acknowl- 

 edge that such is all due to varying energizing action. For 

 every atom of carbon in the mucilaginous wall of a blue-green 

 alga, every molecule of glycogen that is contained in the cavity, 

 every constituent of the chlorophyll and blue pigment that 

 is associated with the production of the glycogen, every com- 

 plex molecule of the protoplasm that is the highest product 

 of the cell, have each and all been linked together and lifted 

 into a position of power and complexity not by any inherent 

 quality or capacity which they as such possess, but purely 

 and solely in virtue of the energy that has guided and placed 

 each. So, while the different molecules, according to their 

 relative complexity, are gauges, indicators, or measures of 

 the amount and quality of energy that has been spent in lifting, 



