THE BREATH OF LIFE 



the solar energy stored up in fuel suffers no loss in 

 being transformed into work by the animal mech- 

 anism. 



Soddy asks whether or not the minute cells of the 

 body may not have the power of taking advantage 

 of the difference in temperature of the molecules 

 bombarding them, and thus of utilizing energy that 

 is beyond the capacity of the machinery of the 

 motor-car. Man can make no machine that can 

 avail itself of the stores of energy in the uniform 

 temperature of the earth or air or water, or that can 

 draw upon the potential energy of the atoms, but 

 it may be that the living cell can do this, and thus a 

 horse can pull more than a one-horse-power engine. 

 Soddy makes the suggestive inquiry: " If life begins 

 in a single cell, does intelligence? does the physical 

 distinction between living and dead matter begin 

 in the jostling molecular crowd? Inanimate mole- 

 cules, in all their movements, obey the law of prob- 

 ability, the law which governs the successive falls 

 of a true die. In the presence of a rudimentary 

 intelligence, do they still follow that law, or do they 

 now obey another law the law of a die that is 

 loaded?" In a machine the energy of fuel has first 

 to be converted into heat before it is available, but 

 in a living machine the chemical energy of food 

 undergoes direct transformation into work, and 

 the wasteful heat-process is cut off. 



178 



