348 Assimilation 



rent has upon the electric resonator with an equal period 

 of vibration. And this becomes so much the more plaus- 

 ible since Maxwell's theory, of which it is scarcely 

 necessary to remind any one, and which was wholly 

 confirmed by the Hertzian experiments, has demonstrated 

 the essential identity of these electric, induction oscilla- 

 tions across the di-electric formed by the air, with light 

 and heat vibrations in general. The only difference con- 

 sists in the period of vibration which in both the latter is 

 much more rapid than in the former. 



So we can understand how thermal energy, whether 

 that which comes from the irradiation of the sun and 

 from the outer world in general, or that which is de- 

 veloped from chemical processes of decomposition and 

 oxidation taking place in the interior of the organism, 

 can, in as far as it is composed of heat rays of the most 

 different periods of oscillation, constitute the general 

 external stimulus which activates indifferently all the 

 vital processes of synthesis : 



Let us note that to each specific discharge, to the intra- 

 nuclear oscillating as well as to the extra-nuclear func- 

 tional there will correspond very definite substances of 

 dissimilation, for the different specificities of the nervous 

 currents can be due only to the decomposition of sub- 

 stances likewise different. And even if the diversity of 

 these extremely complex and unstable substances consists 

 only in the different number and different mode of 

 grouping of the same atoms of the principal elements 

 which constitute all organic substance, nevertheless the 

 respective substances of dissimilation to which each of 

 these complex substances will give rise, will necessarily 

 be different from one another. These substances of dis- 

 similation, definite and peculiar for each specific dis- 



