ENERGETICS 105 



bilitv. without borrowing energy from without, of re-establish- 

 ing the differences of temperature by drawing heat from a 

 colder in order to concentrate it in a hotter body, and may 

 not be absolutely identical with those obtaining in other ages. 

 Our ignorance of such a phenomenon and our powerlcssness 

 to produce it in no way argue that it is impossible. It may 

 exist for aught we know in some other region of space, or in 

 another time than ours. We may perhaps some day obtain 

 artificially the conditions which would render possible such 

 a phenomenon, since it may be possible to produce in the 

 experimental laboratory conditions which are not spontane- 

 ously realized in nature under present conditions. The future 

 may perchance reveal to us absolutely new phenomena which 

 have not hitherto been realized. In his work on the evolution 

 of matter and of energy Gustave le Hon gives expression to 

 some interesting and original ideas on this subject. 



The laws of Mayer and Carnot alone are not sufficient to 

 explain the phenomena of life, without some consideration of 

 the laws of stimulus. Mayer's principle asserts the conserva- 

 tion of energy, and Carnot's the conditions necessary for its 

 transformation, but these alone cannot account for the trans- 

 formation of potential into actual energy. A weight suspended 

 by a cord does not fall merely because there is room for its 

 descent. We need the intervention of some outside force to 

 cut the cord. In every transformation of energy this external 

 force is required to cut the cord, or pull the trigger, some 

 external force of excitation or liberation, an energy which may 

 be infinitesimal in amount, and which bears no proportion 

 to the quantity of potential energy it sets free. This inter- 

 vention of an excitatory, stimulating, or liberating energy 

 is universal. Every phenomenon of nature is but a trans- 

 formation or a transference of energy, determined by the 

 intervention of a minimal quantity of energy from without. 

 This liberation of large quantities of potential energy by an 

 exceedingly small external stimulus has not hitherto received the 

 consideration it demands. Certain phenomena, such as those 

 of chemical catalysis or the action of soluble ferments, excite 

 our astonishment because such extremely small quantities of 



