8 ENERGY TRANSFORMATIONS 



Nearly all, if not all, other known forms of energy are phasic 

 or cyclic in character, and it is highly probable that biotic energy 

 must be cyclic also, the conditions of the cycle being different in 

 different types of cell, and under different conditions of environ- 

 ment, and hence at certain stages alterations must occur as the 

 result of variation in the biotic energy of the cell for the time 

 being. 



In other forms of energy we recognise what has been termed 

 the potential factor. Now, if we suppose that in the living cell 

 there is produced a type of energy peculiar to living structures, 

 from the non-living forms of energy supplied from without by 

 means of the cell acting as transformer, then it may be supposed 

 that if there is any tendency to accumulation of biotic energy, the 

 capacity factor being fixed by the size of the cell, the potential 

 factor must increase and lead to division and reproduction. 

 Naturally any such process must be modified by other factors 

 playing in upon the cell, such as food, temperature, and other 

 conditions of environment, but it would be guided and controlled 

 by the biotic energy of the cell. 



The division and reproduction of the cell, therefore, furnish 

 energy phenomena of a type not found outside living matter. 



III. Heredity, and the reproduction of like species from like, 

 shows that there is something present not dependent merely upon 

 structure, but that the cell possesses a type of energy which causes 

 a retention of properties, and a capacity for communication of 

 these onward. 



By variations in the factors of such a form of energy the 

 character of the effects are capable of alteration, much in the 

 same way as variation in vibration period can alter the effects 

 produced by radiant energy, or alterations in constituent groups 

 of the chemical molecule can alter the chemical energy. 



The closest histological examination reveals no essential differ- 

 ence between the ovum of one species of mammal and that of 

 another, yet the cells develop into widely different species. This 

 cannot all be due to nothing but the operation of inorganic forms 

 of energy upon structure so similar that the microscope can show 

 no difference in design. Nor can the unicellular ovum contain 

 already laid down in it structurally some representation of each 

 cell or even each tissue of the animal which is to be formed from 

 it- It is too minute and too simple in its organisation to render 



