WHAT IS LIFE? 29 



not have any experimental proof as to just how these 

 things take place, so we do not know, but there seems to 

 be no doubt that light, radiant heat and electric waves 

 are all of the same nature. The ether waves are some- 

 times spoken of as visible or invisible light. The vibra- 

 tion of the ether set in motion by the sun is heat when felt 

 by the hand and light when felt by the eye. Heat is un- 

 derstood to be and is a disturbance of the molecules of 

 matter. The more violent the disturbance the more heat. 

 The cells that build plants understand how to direct and 

 use the heat of the sun. As the vibrations of the ether stir 

 up the activity of the atoms of matter, the celllcnows how 

 to pile them up in large molecules, which are called col- 

 loids. These are merely building material and contain no 

 life, such as proteids, fats, starches, sugar and other car- 

 bohydrates. These building materials known as colloids 

 are such combinations of atoms as break up very easily 

 and when released can be again directed to take such 

 form and substance as may be required by cells in any 

 particular place in the body. As the atoms change from 

 one substance into another, they jar the surrounding 

 bodies and the atmosphere in which they come in contact, 

 and this produces what we call heat. This atomic motion 

 and vibration is also called chemical energy. Now as it 

 is a fact that only a part of the cells understand or in other 

 words have the power to make their own food and build- 

 ing material from the raw material of earth and air by 

 chemical action from the heat of the sun, it is clear that 

 chemical action is not life nor the cause of life. 



Possibly heat is not very generally understood and the 

 following is a good short description of heat by Garret P. 

 Serviss : "Heat is a violent agitation of the infinitesimal 

 particles or molecules of which all matter is composed, 

 hence there can be no heat in a vacuum where there are 



