[10] The reason is to be found in the large number of indeterminates in the problem we have to solve. It will be sufficient to enumerate them: the two substances which exist in the anatomical element, protoplasm and reserve-stuff, to which are attributed contrary roles; the two conditions attributable to the protoplasm, of manifested or latent activity; the faculty possessed by both of being prolonged for an indeterminate period, and of encroaching each on its protagonist when its existence is at stake. Here are more elements than are necessary to explain the positive or negative results of all the experiments in the world.
[11] There is another reason why the rôle of mechanical energy, compared with that of thermal energy, is reduced, in the partition of afferent, alimentary energy—at least, in animals which have not to do excessive work. The unit of heat, the Calorie, is equivalent to 425 units of work—i.e., to 425 kilogrammetres. In the animal at rest, the number of kilogrammetres representing the different quantities of work done is small, the number of corresponding Calories is 425 times smaller. It becomes almost negligeable in comparison with the considerable number of Calories dissipated in the form of heat.
[12] It is not certain, however, that all the precautions taken have the desired result. You cannot entirely deprive meat of its carbohydrates.
[13] M. Le Dantec, of whose philosophical and rigorously systematic mind I have the highest opinion, has laid down a new conception of life, the essential basis of which is this very distinction between elementary life and ordinary life; between the life of the elements or of the beings formed from a single cell, protophytes and protozoa, and the life of ordinary animals and plants, which are multicellular complexes, and for that reason called metazoa and metaphytes.
Further, in the elementary life peculiar to monocellular beings (protozoa and cellular elements), M. Le Dantec distinguishes three manners of being:—The first condition, which is elementary life manifested in all its perfection, cellular health; the second condition is deteriorated elementary life, cellular disease; and the third condition, which is latent life. I should say at once that in so far as the fundamental distinction of the phenomena of elementary life and those of the general life of animals and ordinary plants, metazoa or metaphytes is concerned, we find it neither justified nor useful. And further, manifested elementary life, as M. Le Dantec understands it, would only belong to a small number of elementary beings—for the protozoa, starting with the infusoria, are not among the number—and to a still smaller number of anatomical elements, since among the vertebrates we recognize as almost the only elements satisfying it, the ovule, and perhaps the leucocyte. Physiologists, therefore, do not agree with M. Le Dantec as to the utility of adding one condition more to those we all admit—namely, manifested animal life and latent life.
[14] Amylolytic ferments change starch and glycogen (amyloses) into sugar.—Tr.
[15] Proteolytic ferments change proteids into peptones and proteoses.—Tr.
[16] The enzyme known as lipase splits the fat or oil in germinating seeds into a fatty acid and glycerine.—Tr.
[17] These ideas are clearly brought to light in a series of articles in the Revue Philosophique, published in 1879 under the title of “La problème physiologique de la vie,” and endorsed by A. Dastre in his commentary on the Phénomènes communs aux animaux et aux plantes.
[18] Bear-animalcules, Sloth-animalcules. An order of Arachnida.—Tr.