2 LAWS OF ENERGY 



science is the most fundamental of the experimental sciences 

 and, so far as is known, its laws are applicable to all non-living 

 matter. Biochemists have attempted to break down the wall 

 of partition which has been reared by common consent between 

 the chemical constitution of living and non-living. They have 

 been partially successful in that they have been able to build 

 up certain typical products of life from non-living material. No 

 one, however, has, as yet, either analysed or synthesised living 

 matter. The finest chemical technique available cannot be 

 employed without injury to the tissue studied. In spite of this 

 drawback, the science of nutrition may be classed as exact. 

 Mathematical formulae may be employed to express results, and 

 chemical response to a definite stimulus may be predicted. 



Life has been compared to a flame. The Ancients looked on 

 fire as a living thing, and is their view not, to some extent, justi- 

 fiable ? The continual ringing of the changes of form, of colour, 

 or of position by the flickering flames of our house fires draws 

 the eye. Constantly, alterations are going on. No flame is still 

 for any length of time. All is seemingly unordered and uncon- 

 trolled change. Yet down to the most -minute movement all is 

 governed by physico-chemical laws. Every flicker can be ac- 

 counted for, and could be recorded as due to pressure of liberated 

 gas, pressure and direction of draught, temperature of fire, etc. 

 Fire mysterious and all-powerful gift of the gods has yielded 

 to the prying endeavours of the scientist, and can be harnessed 

 and employed in the service of man. 



Similarly, while not committing oneself to a vitalistic or to a 

 mechanistic conception of life, one may study, with considerable 

 profit, the various physical phenomena exhibited by living matter. 

 Examination of even the simplest form of life is sufficient to 

 show that a characteristic phenomenon is change. No living 

 thing is absolutely still. It is undergoing change in one way or 

 another. It may alter its position relatively to its environment ; 

 it may alter in its parts ; it may grow ; it may undergo altera- 

 tions in internal (atomic or molecular) structure. The physico- 

 chemical processes indicated by these changes or initiated by 

 them are studied under the term metabolism (Gr. meta= change). 

 Metabolism may consist in a building up of matter, anabolism 

 (Gr. ana=up) or in the reverse process, a breaking down of 

 matter, catabolism (Gr. katado\vr\). If anabolism is greater 

 than catabolism, the organism grows ; if the two processes balance, 

 the organism exists. The predominance of catabolism leads to 



