4 ENERGY TRANSFORMATIONS 



f^5 It is imperative to add, however, that this peculiar solution 

 possesses something superadded, that this colloidal solution has a 

 structure and organisation which differentiate it from all non- 

 living colloids, such as starch, gelatine, or proteid in solution ; 

 impress upon it peculiar properties, and make it the scene of those 

 typical energy transformations which we aggregate together under 

 the term life. 



It is unfortunate that the rebound from the bondage of the 

 old view of a mysterious vital force or vital energy, possessing no 

 connection or correlation with the forms of energy exhibited by 

 non-living transformers of energy, should have led to the equally 

 mischievous view of the present day, that no form of energy what- 

 ever is present in living cells save such as are seen in the case of 

 non-living matter. 



In order to avoid confusion with ancient fallacies, the writer 

 has elsewhere suggested the use of the term " biotic energy " to 

 represent that form of energy peculiar to living matter, and 

 exhibited in those energy phenomena which are confined to living 

 matter and are indeed its intrinsic property, by which it is differ- 

 entiated and known to be alive. 



It must be pointed out that this point of view is equally dis- 

 tinct on the one hand from the ancient one of vital force, which 

 postulated something entirely distinct from the forms of energy 

 of the non-living world, and on the other from the modern view 

 that there exists in living matter no form of energy which is 

 not identical with the forms of energy exhibited in non-living 

 structures. 



The conception, in brief, is that biotic energy is just as closely, 

 and no more, related to the various forms of energy existing apart 

 from life, as these are to one another, and that in presence of the 

 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 between any two or more of the latter forms. 



We know no more or no less of the intrinsic nature of this 

 biotic energy than we do of any of the non- vital forms ; but we 

 do know that it is confined to living matter, which acts as a 

 transformer between it and other forms, and that the loss of this 

 property means the death of the living matter, that the pheno- 



