276 READINGS IN EVOLUTION, GENETICS, AND EUGENICS 
of energy; for example, it far outweighs that arising from the gravita- 
tional energy which is an ample supply for our cosmic system, the 
explanation being that the minutest energy elements of which radium 
is composed are moving at incredible velocities, approaching often 
the velocity of light, 7.e., 180,000 miles per second. The energy of 
radium differs from the supposed energy of life in being constantly 
dissipated and degraded; its apparently unlimited power is being 
lost and scattered. 
We may imagine that the energy which lies in the life-germ of 
heredity is very great per unit of mass of the matter which contains 
it, but that the life-germ energy, unlike that of radium, is in process 
of accumulation, construction, conservation, rather than of dissipation 
and destruction. 
Following the time (1620) when Francis Bacon divined that heat 
consists of a kind of motion or brisk agitation of the particles of 
matter, it has step by step been demonstrated that the energy of heat, 
of light, of electricity, the electric energy of chemical configurations, 
the energy of gravitation, are all utilized in living as well as in lifeless 
substances. Moreover, no form of energy has thus far been discovered 
in living substances which is peculiar to them and not derived from 
the inorganic world. In a broad sense all these manifestations of 
energy are subject to Newton’s dynamical laws which were formulated 
in connection with the motions of the heavenly bodies, but are found 
to apply equally to all motions great or little. 
These three fundamental laws are as follows: 
I 
Corpus omne perseverare in statu suo 
quiescendi vel movendi uniformiter in 
directum, nisi quatenus illud a viribus 
impressis cogitur statum suum mutare. 
II 
Mutationem motus proportionalem 
esse vi motrici impressae, et fieri secun- 
dum lineam rectam qua vis illa im- 
primitur. 
Ilr 
Actioni contrariam semper et aequa- 
lem esse reactionem: sive corporum 
duorum actiones in se mutuo semper 
esse aequales et in partes contrarias 
dirigi. 
I 
Every body perseveres in its state of 
rest, or of uniform motion in a right 
line, unless it is compelled to change 
that state by forces impressed thereon. 
II 
The alteration of motion is ever 
proportional to the motive force im- 
pressed; and is made in the direction of 
the right line in which that force is 
impressed. 
III 
To every action there is always 
opposed an equal reaction: or the 
mutual actions of two bodies upon each 
other are always equal, and directed to 
contrary parts. 
