368 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. I. No. 14. 



sent over a wire, in this case along a nerve, 

 and the provocation, by its action, of instan- 

 taneous oxidation of carbon into carbon-di- 

 oxide with change of the physical state from 

 the solid or liquid form into gas liberated in 

 a small space under high compression, and 

 thus in a condition to perform maximum 

 work by its expansion. 



(4.) In this eheviico-dynamie machine, the 

 energy displayed in its dynamic operations, as in 

 its muscular work, is generated and applied 

 locally. 



It has been supposed by some writers that 

 the power of the muscular system was de- 

 rived by transmission from some central or 

 remote source to the point of application, by 

 the nervous system, there to be utilized in 

 the act of muscular stress. It is now well 

 ascertained that not only is there no pro- 

 vision for such transmission of energj^, but 

 that the liberation of energy occurs within 

 the mass of the muscle itself, and within its 

 tissue-cells. That the action is local is 

 easily seen in the fact that the excised heart, 

 an excised bit of intestinal muscle, the cor- 

 puscles of the blood itself, and the am.(Bba- 

 form protoplasm of which the flesh is com- 

 posed, in its minutest elements, possess this 

 attribute of energy-development. The heart 

 beats, often for hours in some cases, after 

 removal from the body; the excised mus- 

 cular tissue exhibits its rythmic pulsations 

 visibly after isolation ; the white blood cor- 

 puscle, even, propels itself independently 

 into the locality in which it is to join its ener- 

 gies and activities with those of the already 

 built-up living substance ; the elemental 

 protoplasm everywhere exhibits these char- 

 acteristics of what we call ' living '• matter. 



Thus complete elemental vital systems are 

 found distributed, in many forms, in all 

 parts of the machine, with their directing 

 and initiative forces as well as their energy- 

 transforming apparatus. 



Further: It is now well settled and easily 

 shown that the potential energy supplied 



is tendered to the working system in the 

 form of glucosic matter, sugars, produced 

 from fats and starches, and sent tlirougli 

 the arterial pipe lines to the capillaries and 

 thence into the very cells of the organs La 

 which work is done. There they are re- 

 solved into carbon-dioxide and water; the 

 location and to some extent the nature of 

 the energy-transformation being thus fully 

 revealed. It is a local transformation of 

 chemical into mechanical energj-, directly 

 or indirectly, at the very point and in the 

 very cell, apparentlj^, where the work of 

 that elementary portion of potential energy 

 is performed. The question remaining to 

 be solved is whether this transformation is 

 direct or indirect, a single step or a series 

 of energy-changes, not whether it is effected 

 locally or generally or within some special 

 organ appropriated to that duty. Each 

 cell appears to be an elementary prime 

 motor, an elemental vital machine; and the 

 muscular mechanism is a combination of 

 innumerable elements of similar composi- 

 tion and method of action, in each of which 

 a similar process of energy-transformation 

 is conducted. 



This process is not thermodynamic, is 

 probably not electro-dynamic, is presum- 

 ably chemico-dynamic, by which is meant 

 that the energy of chemical action is prob- 

 ably directly transmuted into mechanical en- 

 ergy, not, as in thermodynamic machines, 

 first into heat and then into work. A ther- 

 modynamic link in the chain would mean 

 the loss of a large fraction of the whole 

 supply; but it still remains to be ascer- 

 tained how direct chemico-dynamic conver- 

 sion of energy can give the remarkable 

 eificiency observed in the vital machine. 



(5) The Nerve-Impxdse, the physical energy 

 relied upon for communicating the voluntary and 

 the automatic stimidi ivhich determine the time 

 and intensity of the action of the musmdar motor- 

 system, is probably a fonn of electric energy or 

 some closely related physical action. 



