IX.] 



THE DYNAMICS OF LIFE. 107 



final transformation of vital energy into inorganic forms of 

 energy, especially into motion, in many cases into heat, 

 sometimes into light or electricity. Muscular action trans- 

 forms vital energy generally into motion, nervous action 

 generally into heat. The muscles have the power of 

 storing energy, in a peculiar static form, for future 

 transformation. At death all the vital energy that was 

 stored in the organism is transformed into inorganic 

 forms : always, probably, into either heat or motion. 



1 am perfectly well aware that in this chapter I have 

 not given a full account of the relation of energy to the 

 various vital processes. But it is probably impossible to 



do so as yet. There appears to be a demand for energy Depend- 



G11C6 of QG" 



in the form of heat, and probably a transformation of it, velopment 

 in the process of organic development. Heat, as already °^ ^^**- 

 stated, appears to be a concomitant of vegetable as well as 

 of animal life generally : and heat is produced in unusual 

 abundance in the act of flowering,^ and again in the germi- 

 nation of the seed. Its source in these cases is oxidation : 

 this is proved, if proof were needed, by the production of 

 carbonic acid : and its purpose, no doubt, is in some way 

 to promote the transformations that take place in the acts 

 of flowering and germination. Animal development also 

 depends in some way on temperature : this, as every one 

 knows, is true of the hatching of eggs, and it is equally 

 true of the final metamorphosis of the insect.^ It is a 

 case of the same law, that the triton, or water-newt, 

 which has a remarkable power of reproducing lost limbs, 

 can only do so at a higher temperature than that which is 

 necessary for its health.^ It is scarcely possible to doubt Transfor- 

 that, in every act of organic development, there is some energy in 

 transformation of energy, though we cannot yet say wJiat organic 

 transformation. Perhaps a charge of energy is taken up ment. 



^ Adolphe Brogniart found the flower of the Arum cordifolium 20° of 

 temperature above the surrounding air. (Carpenter's Comparative Physi- 

 ology, p. 846.) It is not stated whether the degrees are centigrade or 

 Fahi-enheit's. 20° C. = 36° F. 



2 Carpenter's Comparative Physiology, p. 849. 



3 Ibid. p. 65, quoted from Mr. Higginbottom : Proceedings of Royal 

 Society, 18th JMarch, 1847. 



