The Energy of the Living Protoplasm, 



by Dr. Oscar Loew. 

 Professor of Agricultural Chemistry. 



CHAPTER I. 



Former views on the cause of 

 the vital phenomena. 



The change from life to death is so striking, that it has been 

 from the oldest times up to the present day considered as a 

 m3 T stery, as an inconceivable supernatural process. Not less 

 striking than the death of a larger animal or plant is the death- 

 moment of the lowest forms of animal or vegetable life, watched 

 under the microscope. The motions of infusoria cease, the 

 diatoms stop, the spirogyracells show contraction of their green 

 spirals, their cytoplasm loses its shape, their nucleus leaves its 

 normal position. All energy, mechanical or chemical, is gone ! — 



Living organisms produce heat, the nervous system electricity, 

 certain fishes even powerful electrical phenomena, a number of 

 animals and fungi emanate light and all the animals as well as 

 some forms of lower vegetable organisms are capable of locomo- 

 tion. And what a great amount of chemical energy is actively 

 engaged in producing organic matter in plants, on the one hand, 

 and in decomposing and oxydising it in animals on the other ! 

 All these phenomena stop at the moment of death. But what 

 is the cause of the disappearance of the forms of energy? It is 

 of no avail to answer: "Respiration produces heat which can 

 be converted into other forms of energy; " here the fundamental 

 question is : What has produced the respiration process ? Why does 

 this process stop at once at the moment of death ? — 



Before we enter upon the discussion and scientific treatment 

 of this question let us glance at the opinions of ancient philoso- 

 phers and modern physiologists in regard to the cause of the 

 vital functions. 



