NUTRITION. 217 



now universally verified, show us that during this 

 time of apparent repose the cells were loading up 

 their granulations and getting ready the materials of 

 secretion, as just now the muscle at rest was accumu- 

 lating glycogen and the reserve-stufT which are to be 

 expended and destroyed in contraction. Similarly, 

 with regard to the functional activity of the other 

 glands, of the brain, etc. Claude Bernard was, there- 

 fore, perfectly right, when he took as his model the 

 chemists who distinguished between exothermic and 

 endothermic reactions, and who classed the pheno- 

 mena of life into two great divisions : those of 

 functional activity, and those of functional repose. 



I St. The phenomena of functional activity "are 

 those which 'leap to the eyes,' and by which we 

 are inclined to characterize life. They are con- 

 ditioned by the effects of wear and tear, of chemical 

 simplication, and of the organic destruction which 

 liberates energy." And it must be so, because these 

 functional manifestations expend energy. These 

 phenomena, which are the most obvious, are also the 

 least specific phenomena of vitality. They form 

 part of the general phenomenality. 



2nd. The phenomena which accompany functional 

 r^/^i-^ correspond to the building up of the reserve- 

 stuff destroyed in the preceding period, to the organiz- 

 ing synthesis. The latter remains " internal, silent, 

 concealed in its phenomenal expression, noiselessly 

 gathering together the materials which will be ex- 

 pended. We do not see these phenomena of 

 organization directly. The histologist and the 

 embryogenist alone, following the development of 

 the element or of the living being, sees the changes 

 and the phases which reveal this silent effort. Here 



