BIONOMICS 217 



efficacy and adequacy of " love-foods " thus to see that a 

 relatively smaller amount than "usual fare" has carried 

 these men whole and hearty through the greatest feats of 

 endurance and of hardship. Indeed, wherever we look for 

 evidence the same facts are fast becoming apparent. 



Recent research has also shown that very generally it is a 

 deposit of nitrogenous matter in the muscles (Kinotoxin) that 

 is the cause of fatigue, and that the ingestion of certain 

 quantities of nitrogenous food is detrimental to the capacity 

 for work. We can now see that to study the special sensitive- 

 ness of organic matter without taking into account the con- 

 comitant bio-economic implications must be misleading 

 " habet die Teile in der Hand, fehlt leider nur das geistige 

 Band." 



It is, indeed, a curious and significant fact, as Spencer 

 also notes, that nitregen enters so indispensably into the com- 

 position of gunpowder, and, as we can see here, most strikingly 

 with possibilities of conferring death-dealing effects. Here 

 we have but a conspicuous example of the ill-effects wrought 

 by nitrogen when used in certain ways, i.e., when it is 

 suddenly liberated from certain restraining associations, i.e., 

 from useful service. 



It is thus with nitrogen and with gunpowder as it is with 

 sex and with fire, concerning which Schiller says: 



Wohlthaetig ist des Feuer's Macht 

 Wenn sie der Mensch bezaehmt, bewacht, 

 Doch furchtbar wird die Himmelskraft 

 Wenn sie der Fessel sich entrafft, 

 Einher tritt auf der eig'nen Spur 

 Die freie Tochter der Natur. 



a 



In his chapter on 



THE RE- ACTIONS OF ORGANIC MATTER ON FORCES, 

 Spencer tells us : 



Redistributions of Matter imply concomitant redistributions of 

 Motion. That which under one of its aspects we contemplate as an 

 alteration of arrangement among the parts of a body is, under a 



