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 
mystery, 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. 
