THE THEORY OF ENERGY AND THE LIVING WORLD. 533 



two categories. The first contains the destruction of reserves which 

 accompanies functional activity; that is, increased expenditure of 

 energy. The second contains the plastic phenomena of the replen 

 ishing of the reserves; in other words, organic reorganization, which 

 corresponds to functional repose, and is associated with decreased 

 expenditure and rehabilitation of energy. 



If these are not the exact terms employed by 01. Bernard in formu- 

 lating his fertile conception, they are those in which his followers have 

 interpreted his thoughts. They have added nothing except precision 

 to his idea. Applying more rigorously than the eminent physiologist^ 

 the distinction which he had created between really active living pro- 

 toplasms and the reserves which these prepare, they recognize that it 

 was necessary to attribute solely to these latter the functions which 

 Bernard deemed to distribute between them. 



All that 01. Bernard held is rigorously true of the reserves. It is 

 easy in these days to criticise the inexactness of expression in which 

 he stated his ideas. The old adage : Obscuritate rerum verba obscu- 

 rantur, may be his apology. In the darkness of night he had the light 

 of genius. Doubtless he did not find the most definite and polished 

 expression of his thought, but there is no reason for a grammatical 

 quarrel. 



If then, there is incontestably a destruction of reserves when vital 

 activity takes place, what happens to the active living matter? Is it 

 tbe same with it, or does it follow a different course? We do not 

 know. Le Dantec affirms that the living matter is increased rather 

 than destroyed. He gives to this assertion the title of the "Law of 

 functional assimilation," and draws very important conclusions from 

 it. But in reality there is not one of the arguments which he draws to 

 its support which is conclusive. The objections are no more decisive. 

 It is alike vain to attempt in the present state of science either to es- 

 tablish or disprove this proposition by experiment or argument. The 

 cause of this indeterminateness lies in the great number of unknown 

 quantities which enter into the solution of the problem. It is sufficient 

 to enumerate them: the two substances existing in the anatomic 

 element to which we ascribe opposite characteristics; the two condi- 

 tions which are attributed to them of latent and actual activity; the 

 faculty of either of these to exist for an indefinite time and to encroach 

 upon its protagonist when the other has ceased to be. Here are enough 

 unknown elements to vitiate all the results positive or negative which 

 may be obtained. The proposition, then, can not be demonstrated, but 

 may be accepted without too close examination, like the pills of which 

 Hobbs speaks, which must be taken without chewing. 



Energetics leaves this question undecided but inclines nevertheless 

 to the affirmative. The functional assimilation of the protoplasm is not, 

 like the organization of the reserves, a phenomenon approximately 

 without influence on the balance of energy. There is here the consti- 



