78 THE UNIVERSE 



to the chemical energy in electrically charged mole- 

 ulces. 



He says : "A part of the chemical energy of food- 

 stuffs is transformed into electric energy, which gives 

 energy to the body. In one experiment I put a 

 jelly-fish in contact with a solution of electrically 

 charged substances, and it immediately responded 

 by muscular contraction. I then put it in a sub- 

 stance that was a non-conductor and there was 

 no response. In this way I concluded it was the 

 electric charges which effected the muscular con- 

 traction, that a pure salt always acts as a poison 

 to the egg, and in order not to have toxic effects 

 it is necessary that the positive and negative elec- 

 tric charges should easily balance. A muscle is 

 stimulated by electro-negatively charged particles, 

 and prevented from contracting by electro-posi- 

 tively charged particles. 



"'I have experimented with eggs of different low 

 forms of animal life, with single protoplasmic cells, 

 and with muscles. Professor Mathews has shown 

 that my results hold true for nerves. I took the 

 eggs of the fundulus and found that after they 

 were fertilized they will develop in sea water. 



"In a sodium-chloride solution I found they will 

 not develop, but by adding a trace of calcium as 

 many eggs will develop as in the sea water. This 

 is due to the electrically charged atoms of the cal- 

 cium. Artificial parthenogenesis, or life artificially 

 produced, has been of interest only as it leads me 

 to learn how the electric charges of ions affect 

 life phenomena. You can bring about partheno- 

 genesis only by positive ions. I have come to 

 two conclusions : First, rythmical contraction occurs 



