350 STUDIES IN LIFE AND SENSE. 



details of bodily work including under this latter term the mental 

 side of matters equally with the physical aspects of life. And firstly, 

 What, one may ask, are the proofs that this wear and tear of body 

 represent an actual fact of existence ? The candle, which disappears 

 as it burns, only changes the form of the materials of which it consists. 

 Chemically treated, weight for weight of waste products (gas, water, 

 &c.), into which the candle has been resolved, could be produced, 

 as evidence that the matter of the taper has merely undergone a 

 change of form after all. 



An analogous experiment could be performed on the human 

 subject. If Professor Caudal could, for instance, be conceived as 

 placed in one scale of a balance calculated to contain safely the 

 ponderous frame of that celebrated scientist and a counterpoise in 

 the shape of a series of accurately adjusted weights placed in the 

 other scale, we might be able to determine with exactitude, first, that 

 the Caudal frame grew lighter as the eminent student of physiology 

 worked ; and, secondly, that, as the Professor refreshed and renewed 

 his inner man, the scientist in his scale would once again fall to the 

 balanced condition. If Caudal took to lifting loads, heaving wood, 

 or drawing water in his scale, we should find that the loss of weight 

 which he had previously exhibited would be increased proportionately 

 to the exertion his physical labours had entailed. To bring himself 

 and his scale back to equilibrium, he would require simply to eat the 

 requisite amount of food. Possibly if Caudal, sitting in his scale, 

 occupied his brain with the solution of some of those knotty problems 

 which a select audience at Burlington House occasionally meets to 

 discuss in his company, we might not see the Caudal scale rise with 

 loss of weight so distinctly and rapidly as if the Professor indulged in 

 mechanical pursuits. But that the mental work would entail waste, 

 an expenditure of force, and a loss and lightening of the Professor's 

 frame, there can be no question. The mental work simply differs 

 from the bodily labour in that its waste is, if anything, of a more 

 subtle character than that which results from physical toil ; and, one 

 might also add, in that the mental waste is not quite so readily made 

 good and repaired as the bodily wear and tear. If Caudal's income 

 in the shape of food were given him in excess of the expenditure of his 

 substance in work, we should find that his scale would alter daily or 

 hourly, but that it would constantly preponderate over the other scale, 

 and never tend to approach the beam. If the Professor were placed 

 on diminished allowance, we should, on the contrary, find that, like 

 a weighty " spirit medium," he would remain constantly in the air, 

 whilst the weighted scale would drop by comparison. But work and 

 repair being equal, we should note that Caudal simply rose and fell 

 as his substance was used up in the work he performed, and as he 

 received his pabulum, respectively. 



