INTELLIGENCE, POWER, 



adrenal glands of animals in the north to be smaller in 

 relation to the thyroid gland than the adrenal glands of 

 animals in the tropics. 



Since the warm-blooded animals owe their superiority 

 to the operation of van't HofFs law, that with each degree 

 centigrade of rise of temperature the speed of chemical 

 activity is increased 10 per cent, the question arises, why 

 were not the warm-blooded animals evolved to a still higher 

 temperature ? The answer is that protoplasm would be 

 destroyed by detonation or heatstroke. 



Heatstroke 



Since the brain controls the oxidation of the animal and 

 the thyroid and adrenal glands control the oxidation of the 

 brain, why have not larger brains, larger hearts, greater 

 blood volume, and larger thyroid and adrenal glands been 

 evolved? Why has not the elephant a brain bearing the 

 same relation to its body weight as the brain of the mouse ? 

 Why, instead of a temperature of 98.6 as a normal tempera- 

 ture for man and animals, did not evolution establish a 

 temperature of 120* as a normal, thereby greatly increasing 

 the intelligence, power, and personality of animals ? To 

 answer these questions it is necessary to consider again the 

 nature and some of the properties of protoplasm. 



As previously stated, the universal base of protoplasm is 

 its nitrogen and its carbohydrate fractions. These fractions 

 also constitute the base of nitroexplosives. Thus proto- 

 plasm and the nitroexplosives possess certain properties 

 in common. Both are normally in the state of constant 

 disintegration. The rate of disintegration is accelerated 

 specifically by heat. The relation of chemical disintegration 

 of nitroexplosives is expressed by the mathematical equa- 

 tion of Berthelot. This law expresses the fact that nitro- 

 explosives are continually disintegrating unless they are at 



* It has been reported that under excitement the temperature of a bird may 

 reach n6F. 



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