r. ir^^ 



B 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



23 



n li 



tHit;, 



the 



y variat 



cd 



P^nicL 



Or 



> 



^f a whit 



niilarly g 

 influen 



SI 



which an organism 



St 



of 



ceof 



^ggs ani 



enet 



^vise hast 

 l^^at. Consit 



d the doctrit; 

 c Physical Ft: 



whatever amount of power an organism expends in any 

 shape^ is the correlate and equivalent of a power that 

 was taken into it from without. On the one hand^ it 

 follows from the persistence of force, that each portion 

 of mechanical or other energy- 

 exerts, implies the transformation of as much organic 

 matter as contained this energy in a latent state. And 

 on the other hand, it follows from the persistence of 

 force that no such transformation of organic matter 

 containing this latent energy can take place without 

 the energy being in one shape or other manifested/ 

 We shall find it worth our while, however, to follow 



hough sureljjf up a little more fully the details of this most important 

 'St announces doctrine, as it will aid us so much in forming a true 

 [ly being aca conception as to the nature of Life. 



As pointed out by M. Gavarret ^, most of the physi- 



ow 



find U 



terms*— ^No ^^ force which, in the form of light and heat, impinges 



upon a plant, is consumed therein (travail In terleur). It 

 is stored up as potential force in the complex organic 

 substances entering into the composition of the plant ; 

 these being produced therein (under the influence of 



[:al science i;: 



the s 



•ce' is 

 A' ever 



high it' 



1 



amount oft 

 than a stonf 

 train withoat' 



the already existing living tissues) by the 



action of 



physical forces upon the not-living constituents of the 

 earthy air, and water by which the plant was surrounded. 



of the s ' Xhe animal, on the contrary, liberating and using these 



at V^^^'t 

 other truths. 



indep^"! 



)■ '''''^^. , Tune-' 



forces which have been stored up by the plant — after 

 assimilating its substance in the form of food — expends 

 them in the production of that travail exterieur which 



1 ( 



Phenomenes Physiques de la Vie,' 1869, Pari=, p. 73. 



