336 THE ANIMAL AS A PRIME MOVER. 



attractiveness, and of wonderful possible result may be deduced from 

 what lias preceded; some of these conclusions are positive and certain, 

 some extremely probable, others bare possibilities, so far as we can now 

 trace them, and the possibilities are of such inconceivable magnitude 

 and importance, should they be found to have a substantial basis, that, 

 great as are the consequences of the positive deductions, the further 

 investigation of the potentialities will undoubtedly be considered by 

 men of science a matter of even superior importance. Some of these 

 conclusions are: 



(1) The vital machine is not a heat engine, subject to the thermo- 

 dynamic laws governing all known forms of thermo-dynamic machinery 

 produced by man up to the present time. 



We can not assert that it is not a heat engine in the sense of being a 

 machine, which by as yet undiscovered methods directly transforms 

 thermal into dynamical and other forms of energy; but it certainly can 

 not employ expansible fluids and transform energy by their expansion 

 through a wide range of temperature, and it as certainly does greatly 

 exceed all heat engines in efficiency both ideal and actual. 



(2) The vital machine is an energy transforming apparatus, in which 

 the supplied energy is employed in useful transformations in far higher 

 degree than in any energy transforming machine or system yet pro- 

 duced by man to render available the potential energy of oxidizable 

 substances. 



(3) The vital machine must operate through methods of energy 

 transformation yet unknown to science, though undoubtedly absolutely 

 scientific and intelligible once discovered. 



The source of energy is perfectly well known, and the primary steps 

 of the process determined up to the completion of the preparation of 

 the substance containing the potential energy furnished for transfer 

 into the organs of the body and for immediate transformation by 

 chemical action. The resulting products are all probably identified 

 and most of them well understood and quantitatively determinable; 

 but the intermediate processes of transformation of potential into actual 

 energy, and of transformation of one form of energy into another, as 

 yet are veiled from our sight and concealed from our touch. 



(4) These methods, whatever their character, produce mechanical 

 energy more cheaply, as measured in energy consumed, than any 

 known prime motor; develop heat at minimum cost in the same terms; 

 in some cases produce electrical energy in considerable quantity and at 

 high tension, by some probably direct transformation; occasionally 

 produce light of almost absolute purity and perfection of economical 

 character, and in all intelligent creatures supply the mind with an 

 instrument utilizing physical energies for intellectual demonstrations. 



(5) All these products being considered, this vital machine is enor- 

 mously more efficient than any apparatus yet invented by the human 

 mind, and illustrates methods of energy transformation which if they 



