96 THE CRITERIA OF LIVINGNESS 



This power of persisting on its own path a sort of pro- 

 toplasmic inertia is very fundamental. It has received 

 remarkable illustration in the astounding facts established 

 in regard to the continued life of excised or expl anted 

 fragments or even cells. Pieces of skin, drops of blood, 

 fragments of embryo may with proper precautions be kept 

 alive for months. 



Is there any unifying concept behind these extraordinary 

 powers of growing, multiplying, developing, and growing 

 again ? The well-known physicist, Professor Joly of Dublin, 

 made many years ago (1891) the very interesting sugges- 

 tion that the living creature has a unique power of accumu- 

 lating energy acceleratively. " The organism is a configu- 

 ration of matter which absorbs energy acceleratively, without 

 limit, when unconstrained " (p. 79). If we heat a piece 

 of iron or charge a Leyden jar, the process becomes more 

 and more difficult as we go on. " The transfer of energy 

 into any inanimate material system is attended by effects 

 retardative to the transfer and conducive to dissipation." 

 But the young leaf growing in the sunlight utilises the solar 

 energy acceleratively; the more it gets, the more it grows, 

 and the more it can take. " The transfer of energy into any 

 animate material system is attended by effects conducive 

 to the transfer, and retardative of dissipation." On what 

 this peculiar power depends Professor Joly does not tell us 

 that would be the secret of life; but it is very interesting 

 to get from a physicist a clear statement of the dynamic 

 contrast between animate and inanimate material systems. 

 " The animate system is aggressive on the energy available 

 to it, spends it with economy, and invests it with interest, 

 till death finally deprives it of all." 



