Is there an absolute distinction between the organic mechanism and the inorganic one? Let us note, for the first time, that the actual physico-chemical transformations themselves, which we study in inorganic matter, are identical with those which we study in the organism. Molecules of carbon dioxide, water, nitrate, sodium chloride, potassium chloride, phosphate, and so on, are just the same in inert matter as in the organism. Chemical transformations, such as the hydrolysis of starch, the inversion of cane sugar, or the splitting of a neutral fat, are certainly just the same processes, whether we carry them out in the glass vessels of the laboratory, or observe them to proceed in the living tissues of the animal body. The same molecular rearrangements, and the same transfers of energy, occur in both series of events. This, however, is not the material of a distinction: what we have to find is, whether the direction of a group of physico-chemical reactions is the same in the organism and in a series of inorganic processes.
Let us return to the Carnot cycle. This is a series of operations which occur in an imaginary mechanism in such a manner that the whole series can be easily reversed. Heat is supplied to the imaginary engine, which then performs work and yields up its heat to a refrigerator. Work is then performed on the engine, which thereupon takes heat from the refrigerator and returns it to the source. The work done by the engine in the direct cycle is equal to the work done on it in the indirect cycle. The heat taken from the source and given to the refrigerator in the direct cycle is equal to the heat taken from the refrigerator and given to the source in the indirect cycle. But it is a purely imaginary mechanism, and all experience shows not only that it has not been realised in practice, but that it cannot so be realised. If it could be realised, we should show that the second law of thermo-dynamics is not physically true.
Do the energy processes of life realise such a perfectly reversible cycle of operations? In order to answer this question we must consider the fate of the energy which is absorbed in the plant metabolic cycle, and that which is given out in the animal one. Does all the energy of solar radiation which is absorbed by the plant pass into the form of the potential chemical energy of the carbohydrates and other substances manufactured? Does any of the energy of the animal which results from the metabolism of its body pass into the unavailable form—that is, into a form in which it cannot be utilised by other organisms? That is to say, is energy dissipated by the organism?
Undoubtedly it is to some extent, but to a far less extent than in the inorganic train of processes. Some of the energy of solar radiation absorbed by the plant must become transformed, by the friction of whatever movements occur, into low-temperature heat, and some quantity of heat, however small, is generated by the metabolism of the plant. Again, some of the heat of the warm-blooded animal must be radiated into space, or conducted away from its body; and this energy becomes dissipated—let us assume, at least, that it is so dissipated in the physical sense. Probably also some quantity of heat is generated by the metabolism of the cold-blooded animal, though this must be a very small proportion of the total energy transformed. We see, then, that the distinction is one of degree, though the difference between inorganic and organic energetic processes is very great in this respect; so great that we must regard it as constituting a fundamental difference, and as indicative of the limitation of the second law when extended to the functioning of the organism.
But we have also to consider the effect of the work done by the organism. We consider the nature and meaning of the evolutionary process in a later chapter, but in the meantime we may state this thesis: that the process of evolution leads up to man and his activity. It leads, if we regard the process as a directed one; but even if we regard it as a fortuitous process we still find that man, far more than any other organism, is the result of it. All the facts of biology and history show that man dominates the organic world, plant or animal; that the whole trend of his activity is to eliminate whatever organisms are inimical, and to foster those that are useful. Already, during the brief period of his rational activity, the wolf has disappeared from civilised lands while the dog has been produced. Species after species of hostile or harmful organisms have been, or are being, destroyed or changed, while numerous other species have been preserved and altered for his benefit. In the future we see an organic world subservient to him either entirely or to an enormous extent.
So also in the inorganic world. Rivers which formerly rushed down through rapids, dissipating their energy of movement in waste irrecoverable heat, now pour through turbines and water wheels, generating electricity and accumulating available energy. Winds which “naturally” dissipated their mechanical energy in waste heat now propel ships and windmills. Tides, with their incredibly great mechanical energy, now simply warm up the crust of the earth by an infinitesimal fraction of a degree daily, and produce heat which at once radiates into space. Who doubts that by and by this energy too will become accumulated for human use? Multitudes of chemical reactions were potential, so to speak, in the molecules of petroleum, while the energy which might have produced them ran to waste. But under human activity this energy became directed and made to produce chemical reactions formerly existing only in their possibility, and all the substances of modern organic chemistry came into existence.
The energy, then, of human activity has been directed towards averting or retarding the progress towards dissipation, or irrecoverable waste, of cosmic energy—that of the sun’s radiation, and of the motions of earth and moon. Human activity has accumulated available energy. The difference of water-level between Niagara and the rapids below represents available mechanical energy. A few years ago an enormous quantity of this energy became irredeemably lost in waste heat every twenty-four hours: now it remains available for work; and this quantity of work retained is enormously greater than is the human energy which was expended on erecting the water-power installation there.
The processes studied by physics and chemistry are therefore irreversible ones. We can conceive a perfectly reversible process, as in the Carnot heat-engine, but this is a purely intellectual conception, formed as the limit to a series of operations which approximate closer and closer to an ideal reversibility. It is a conception that has no physical reality—a guide to reasoning only. On the other hand we see that all naturally occurring physical processes are irreversible and in their sum tend to complete degradation of energy. Mechanistic biology isolates physico-chemical processes in the functioning of the organism, and sees that they conform to the law of dissipation, as well as to that of the conservation of energy.
Yet the organism as a whole, that is, life as a whole, on the earth, does not conform to the law of dissipation. That which is true of the isolated processes into which physiology decomposes life is not true of life. In all inorganic happenings energy becomes unavailable for the performance of work. Solar radiation falling on sea and land fritters itself away in waste irrecoverable heat, but falling on the green plant accumulates in the form of available chemical energy. The total result of life on the earth in the past has been the accumulation of enormous stores of energy in the shape of coal and other substances. By its agency degradation has been retarded. Whenever, says Bergson, energy descends the incline indicated by Carnot’s law, and where a cause of inverse direction can retard the descent, there we have life.