976 On Catagenesis. [ October, 
the question. I mean the acts directed by consciousness, the 
acts which would not take place at all if the animal were 
unconscious. That there are many such acts yow well know, 
The explanation can only be found in a simple acceptance of the 
fact as it is, in the thesis, that energy can be conscious, Tf true, 
this is an ultimate fact, neither more nor less difficult to compre- 
hend than the nature of energy or matter in theirsultimate analy- 
ses. But how is such a hypothesis to be reconciled with the 
facts of nature, where consciousness plays a part so infinitesi- 
mally small? The explanation lies close at hand, and has already 
been referred to. Energy become automatic is no longer conscious, 
or is about to become unconscious. That this is the case is mat- 
ter of everyday observation on ourselves and on other animals, 
What the molecular conditions of consciousness are, is one of 
the problems of the future, and for us a very interesting ont. 
One thing is certain, the organization of the mechanism of hab- 
its is its enemy. {t is clear that in animals, energy, om the loss of 
consciousness, undergoes a retrograde metamorphosis, as it does 
later in the history of organized beings on their death. This loss 
of consciousness is first succeeded by the so-called involuntary 
and automatic functions of animals. According to the law of 
catagenesis, the vegetative and other vital functions of animals 
and plants are a later product of the retrograde metamorphosis 
of energy. With death, energy falls to the level of the pole 
tensions of chemism, and the regular and symmetrical movements 
of molecules in the crystallization of its inorganic products. Let 
us now trace in more detail the energies displayed by animals 
and plants. 
: It has been already advanced (see page 971) that the phenom 
ena of growth-force, which are especially characteristic of living 
things, originated in the direction given to nutrition by conscious” 
ness and by the automatic movements derived from it. 
remain, however, some other phenomena which do not yield of 
readily to this analysis. These are: first, the conversion by ga 
mals of dead into living protoplasm; second, the conversion ie 
Inorganic substances into protoplasm by plants; and third, j 
manufacture of the so-called organic compounds from the imor 
ganic by plants. To these points we may return again. z3 
also well known that living animal organisms act as producers, by 
_ Conversion, of various kinds of inorganic energy, as heat 
ENTE electricity, motion, etc. It is the uses to which the 
