128 CREATIVE EVOLUTION 



rest of the organism. Glance first at the distribution 

 of alimentary substances among the different elements 

 of the living body. These substances fall into two 

 classes, one the quaternary or albuminoid, the other the 

 ternary, including the carbohydrates and the fats. The 

 albuminoids are properly plastic, destined to repair the 

 tissues although, owing to the carbon they contain, 

 they are capable of providing energy on occasion. But 

 the function of supplying energy has devolved more 

 particularly on the second class of substances : these, 

 being deposited in the cell rather than forming part of 

 its substance, convey to it, in the form of chemical 

 potential, an expansive energy that may be directly con 

 verted into either movement or heat. In short, the chief 

 function of the albuminoids is to repair the machine, 

 while the function of the other class of substances is to 

 supply power. It is natural that the albuminoids should 

 have no specially allotted destination, since every part 

 of the machine has to be maintained. But not so with 

 the other substances. The carbohydrates are distributed 

 very unequally, and this inequality of distribution seems 

 to us in the highest degree instructive. 



Conveyed by the arterial blood in the form of 

 glucose, these substances are deposited, in the form of 

 glycogen, in the different cells forming the tissues. 

 We know that one of the principal functions of the 

 liver is to maintain at a constant level the quantity of 

 glucose held by the blood, by means of the reserves 

 of glycogen secreted by the hepatic cells. Now, in this 

 circulation of glucose and accumulation of glycogen, 

 it is easy to see that the effect is as if the whole effort 

 of the organism were directed towards providing with 

 potential energy the elements of both the muscular and 

 the nervous tissues. The organism proceeds differently 



