CONSERVATION OF ENERGY 229 



proper and adapted energy transformer, viz., 

 the living cell, it is capable of being formed 

 from or converted into various of these other 

 forms of energy, the law of conservation of 

 energy being obeyed in the process just as it 

 would be if an exchange were taking place be- 

 tween any two or more of the latter forms." 

 It would hardly seem that Professor Moore had 

 escaped from all the difficulties of the situation 

 by this method of leaping over the fence, for 

 we still require an account of the action of " the 

 proper and adapted energy transformer, viz., 

 the living cell " this being exactly the difficulty 

 that is encountered in all the solutions of the 

 difficulty which have been heretofore proposed. 

 It has, for example, been urged that the power 

 which frees the energy is so small that it may be The spark 

 regarded as inappreciable when incorporated in an( * the 

 the total result. In fact it has been compared 62 

 with the tiny spark which is capable of exploding 

 .i mine of blasting-powder and releasing an enor- 

 mous amount of energy by the expenditure of 

 in amount which is so small as to be almost 

 negligible in the whole account of the trans- 

 ition.* To some extent, no doubt, this is all 



* " So comparable with this is the discharge of a projectile 

 i>y the minute work of a trigger, or it may be the still 

 minuter work of an electric spark liberating foot-tons of 

 rnergy in a cannon, that organic response is termed action 

 *i detente (trigger action) by the French, and Auslosung 

 ( letting-off) by the Germans : we might term it 'release I ' 5 

 Hartog : Problems of Life and Reproduction, p. 229. 



