The Cloth o Spider 



while with the sole aid of the food wherewith 

 the egg furnishes it; but soon, if the stomach 

 is not kept supplied, the centre of energy 

 becomes extinct and the bird dies. How 

 would the chick fare if it were expected, for 

 seven or eight months without stopping, to 

 stand on its feet, to run about, to flee in the 

 face of danger? Where would it stow the 

 necessary reserves for such an amount of 

 work? 



The little Spider, in her turn, is a minute 

 particle of no size at all. Where could she 

 store enough fuel to keep up mobility dur- 

 ing so long a period? The imagination 

 shrinks in dismay before the thought of an 

 atom endowed with exhaustible motive 

 oils. 



We must needs, therefore, appeal to the 

 immaterial, in particular to heat-rays coming 

 from the outside and converted into move- 

 ment by the organism. This is nutrition of 

 energy reduced to its simplest expression : the 

 motive heat, instead of being extracted from 

 the food, is utilized direct, as supplied by the 

 sun, which is the seat of all life. Inert matter 

 has disconcerting secrets, as witness radium; 

 living matter has secrets of its own, which are 

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