INTRODUCTORY 5 



that is speculative, I am fortunately able to support the 

 hypothesis that light is a force in motion by proof. 



An onion in good condition will when tested galvano- 

 metrically, if the instrument is a sensitive one, give a large 

 deflection; its electromotive force being 0.086 volt. If 

 the vegetable is " earthed " in vacuo that deflection will, 

 after some thirty or forty minutes, fall to zero, because 

 the source of charge, the air, has been cut off ; and there- 

 after no deflection other than one due to a vagrant earth- 

 current will be observed. If now the onion is removed 

 from the apparatus and exposed to the air in a room in a 

 dull subdued light it will not recover sufficiently to yield 

 its initial deflection for several days. In the open air, in 

 the sun, it recovers in an hour or so or less. 



That, I submit, goes to show that a very real force is 

 exerted by sunlight and this view is supported by Professor 

 Bose. 



From these considerations one is led irresistibly to the 

 experiments of that distinguished surgeon, Dr. Alexis 

 Carrel, experiments which have been responsible for the 

 theory that life is merely a product of chemical reaction. 

 That is a statement made by Dr. Jacques Loeb, Dr. Carrel's 

 colleague at the Rockefeller Laboratories. Professor Schafer 

 is also reported to have declared that there is not a great 

 difference, after all, between dead and living matter. 



I propose to subject both those statements to the test 

 of common sense, backed by ascertained fact. 



Dr. Carrel extirpated from his experimental animals — 

 I am taking an account from The World's Work, of March, 

 1913 — a chicken, a dog, a cat, or a frog — pieces of tissue. 

 He selected small samples of the most important bodily 

 organs — pieces of skin, of liver, of heart, of kidney, of 

 spleen, of thyroid gland, of bone and cartilage. Placing 

 these specimens upon a microscopic slide, he poured upon 

 each a drop or two of blood plasma. 



The glass slides containing the specimens were then placed 

 in an incubator, heated up to the body temperature — and 

 the specimens grew. 



The experiments themselves are full of interest, reflect 



