bergson's philosophy of the organism. 11 



a way that mechanical friction is transformed into heat, 

 imperfect conductivity into heat, and so on. The result 

 of these conditions is that in all transformations of 

 energy effected by a physico-chemical mechanism some of 

 the energy is dissipated in the form of heat which is then 

 radiated off to surrounding objects. Let us suppose that 

 the solar system is an isolated portion of the universe : 

 it is not, in fact, but we make it such by supposing that 

 it receives just as much energy from the rest of the 

 universe as it radiates off. In this system the energy 

 which can be utilised is that radiated off by the sun, and 

 part of that contained in the motions of the separate parts 

 of the system. Solar energy is directly available in the 

 form of oceanic and atmospheric circulations, and 

 indirectly as the potential energy of coal and vegetation. 

 The kinetic energy of the sun, moon and earth is again 

 available in the form of tidal circulations. These 

 processes, the contraction of the sun, the possible 

 generation of energy by atomic disintegrations, the 

 differential movements of the earth, moon and sun are all 

 irreversible. When we make use of energy from any of 

 these sources, loss is incurred; and the energy thus lost 

 inevitably appears as heat which tends to become 

 uniformly diffused throughout the system by conduction 

 and radiation. A time must ultimately come, therefore, 

 when the energy of the sun will have been dissipated as 

 heat and when a state of equilibrium between planets, 

 satellites and sun will have been attained, so that tidal 

 effects will cease. The amount of energy still contained 

 in the solar system will be enormously great, but it will 

 be unavailable energy, for it will exist in the form of 

 uniformly distributed heat, and as the kinetic energy of 

 moving bodies in a state of equilibrium. 



It does not matter how minutely we analyse the 



