o ANIMAL BEHAVIOR 



OXIDATION is the only source of animal energy. "Strug- 

 gle" among animals is largely competiton of rates of 

 oxidation. 



While we were hunting in Africa, the rush of the lion in 

 attack and the swiftness of the zebra in escape exhibited 

 such lightning speed and power that the feeble action of 

 enzymes and catalysts seemed to me inadequate to account 

 for the genesis of this fulminating energy. 



Let us compare the oxygen-controlling mechanism of 

 these high-powered animals with the oxygen-controlling 

 mechanism of the amoeba, for these may represent different 

 oxygen-controlling systems. 



In unicellular organisms the positive nucleus and the 

 negative cytoplasm maintain their electric strain through 

 oxidation controlled by enzymes and catalysts. The rate of 

 oxidation being higher in the nucleus than in the cytoplasm, 

 there is maintained between the nucleus and the cytoplasm 

 a difference in electrolytic concentration that establishes a 

 difference in electric potential. This is adequate for the low 

 and more constant level of the basic energy of the amoeba. 

 One would suppose that this energy formula of the amoeba 

 would apply equally to the nucleated cells in the organs of 

 the higher animals. 



In the nucleated cells in the organs of the higher animals 

 a similar energy pattern is seen. These nucleated cells are 

 found in the organs and in the structures of the digestive 

 tract, the genito-urinary tract, the pulmonary tract, the 

 liver, the pancreas, the spleen, the skeleton, the skin, the 

 lymph glands, the bone marrow, the thyroid and adrenal 

 glands, and the brain. 



The nucleated cells of all these organs take the energy 

 pattern of the amoeba, but these nucleated cells form the 

 minor part of the higher animals, both as to mass and as to 



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