.">|n MEMORIAL OF JOSEPH HENRY. 



limns and carbon is constantly evolved. - The animal is 



a curiously contrived arrangement for burning carbon and hydro- 

 gen, and for the evolution and application of power. A machine 

 is an instrument for the application of power, and imt for its crea- 

 tion. The animal body is a structure of tins character. - 

 A comparison has been made between the work which can be done 

 l>v burning a given amount of carbon in the machini — man, and 

 an equal amount in the machini — steam-engine. The result 

 derived from an analysis of the food in one case, and the weight of 

 the fuel in the other, and these compared with the quantity of 

 water raised by each to a known elevation, gives the relative work- 

 ing value of the two machines. From this comparison, made from 

 experiments on soldiers in Germany and France, it is found that 

 the human machine in consuming the same amount of carbon, doe- 

 four and a halt' times the amount of work of the best Cornish 

 engine. - 



"There i- however one striking difference between the animal 

 body and the locomotive machine, which deserves our special atten- 

 tion; namely the power in the body is constantly evolved by burn- 

 ing (as it were.) parts of the materials of the machine itself; as if 

 the frame and other portions of the wood-work of the locomotive 

 were burnt to produce the power, and then immediately renewed. 

 The voluntary motion of our organs of speech, of our hands, of 

 our feet, and of every muscle in the body, is produced not at the 

 expense of the soul but at that of the material of the body itself. 

 Every motion manifesting life in the individual, is the result of 

 power derived from the death as it were of a part of his body. 

 We are thus constantly renewed and constantly consumed; ami in 

 this consumption and renewal consists animal life." 



Seven years after the publication of this highly original and sug- 

 gestive exposition, (whose topics and line of discussion had been 



Agricultural Report for l v ~>7. pp. (45-449. This important essay it will be 

 observed, antedates Prof. Joseph Le Conte's paper "on the Correlation i >t Physi- 

 cal, Chemical, and Vital Force," read before the American Association :>t Spring- 

 field, Aug. IK59, Proceed. An,. Assoc, pp. 187-203: and sill. Am. Jour. Sci. Nov. 

 1859, vol. xxviii.pp. 105-319, as well i' Dr. Carpenter's second and inert- mature 

 paper "tin the application "i Mi-' Principle of Conservation of Force t<> Physi- 

 ology," published in Crookes' Quarterly Journal of Science, u<i Jan. ami April, 

 Im.i. v.. I. i. pp. 70-87; and pp. 259-267. 



