166 THE WONDERS OF INSTINCT 



few shovelfuls of coal in its inside. This heat will pro- 

 duce mechanical work. 



Even so with the beast. As nothing is made from 

 nothing, the egg supplies first the materials of the new- 

 born animals; then the plastic food, the smith of living 

 creatures, increases the body, up to a certain limit, and 

 renews it as it wears away. The stoker works at the 

 same time, without stopping. Fuel, the source of energy, 

 makes but a short stay in the system, where it is con- 

 sumed and furnishes heat, whence movement is derived. 

 Life is a fire-box. Warmed by its food, the animal ma- 

 chine moves, walks, runs, jumps, swims, flies, sets its 

 locomotory apparatus going in a thousand manners. 



To return to the young Lycosae, they grow no larger 

 until the period of their emancipation. I find them at 

 the age of seven months the same as when I saw them 

 at their birth. The egg supplied the materials necessary 

 for their tiny frames ; and, as the loss of waste substance 

 is, for the moment, excessively small, or even nil, addi- 

 tional plastic food is not needed so long as the wee crea- 

 ture does not grow. In this respect, the prolonged 

 abstinence presents no difficulty. But there remains the 

 question of energy-producing food, which is indispensa- 

 ble, for the little Lycosa moves, when necessary, and very 

 actively at that. To what shall we attribute the heat 

 expended upon action, when the animal takes absolutely 

 no nourishment ? 



An idea suggests itself. We say to ourselves that, 

 without being life, a machine is something more than 

 matter, for man has added a little of his mind to it. 



