982 On Catagenesis. [October, 
In the department of physics I am not at home, and touch 
upon it merely to carry out to a necessary conclusion the hy- 
pothesis presented in the preceding pages. It may be that phys- 
icists and chemists may find value in the suggestions which — 
come from the side of biology. A cursory perusal of the general 
hypotheses current in these departments, shows that the dooris 
wide open to receive light from this quarter. What can be 
offered here is of the vaguest, yet it may suggest thought and 
research in some minds, 
In the first’place it is highly probable that one of the problems 
to be solved by the physicists of the present and future, is that of | 
a true genealogy of the different kinds of energy. In this com 
nection a leading question will be the determination of the essen- 
tial differences between the different forms of energy, and the 
material conditions which cause the metamorphosis of one kind 
of energy into another. 
In constructing a genealogy of energies, it must be observed 
that we will probably obtain, not a single line of succession, but 
several lines of varying lengths. It must also be remembered, 
that as in the forms of the material world which are their expr 
sion, a greater or less extensive exhibition of all the typ 
remains to the present day. n 
That the tendency of purely inorganic energy is to “run down, 
in all except possibly some electric operations, is well know® 
Inorganic chemical activity constantly tends to make simples 
compounds out of the more complex, and to end ina satisfaction 
of affinities which cannot be further disturbed except by acces 
additional energy. In chemical reaction the preference of energy 
is to create solid precipitates. In the field of the phy. sical wag 
we are met by the same phenomenon of running down. 
organic energies or modes of motion tend to be ultimately co” 
verted into heat, and heat is being steadily dissipated into grt 
Therefore the result has been and will be the creation of the mY 
eral kingdom; of the rocks and fluids that constitute the masses 
of the worlds. | a 
The process of creation by the retrograde metamorphosis ; 
energy, or what is the same thing, by the specialization of g 
may be called catagenesis. It may be denied, however, tat 
process results in a specialization of energy. The vital « a 
are often regarded as the most special, and the inorganic 3 
