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THE STORY OF THE LIVING MACHINE
A REVIEW OF THE CONCLUSIONS OF MODERN BIOLOGY IN REGARD TO THE MECHANISM WHICH CONTROLS THE PHENOMENA OF LIVING ACTIVITY
BY
H.W. CONN
PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY IN WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY
AUTHOR OF THE STORY OF GERM LIFE, EVOLUTION OF TO-DAY, THE LIVING WORLD, ETC.
WITH FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS
NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1903
COPYRIGHT, 1899, By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.
PREFACE.
That the living body is a machine is a statement that is frequently made without any very accurate idea as to what it means. On the one hand it is made with a belief that a strict comparison can be made between the body and an ordinary, artificial machine, and that living beings are thus reduced to simple mechanisms; on the other hand it is made loosely, without any special thought as to its significance, and certainly with no conception that it reduces life to a mechanism. The conclusion that the living body is a machine, involving as it does a mechanical conception of life, is one of most extreme philosophical importance, and no one interested in the philosophical conception of nature can fail to have an interest in this problem of the strict accuracy of the statement that the body is a machine. Doubtless the complete story of the living machine can not yet be told; but the studies of the last fifty years have brought us so far along the road toward its completion that a review of the progress made and a glance at the yet unexplored realms and unanswered questions will be profitable. For this purpose this work is designed, with the hope that it may give a clear idea of the trend of recent biological science and of the advances made toward the solution of the problem of life.
MIDDLETOWN, CONN., U.S.A.
October 1, 1898.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
INTRODUCTION—Biology a new science—Historical biology—Conservation of energy—Evolution—Cytology—New aspects of biology—The mechanical nature of living organisms—Significance of the new biological problems—Outline of the subject 1
PART I.
THE RUNNING OF THE LIVING MACHINE.
CHAPTER I.
IS THE BODY A MACHINE?
What is a machine?—A general comparison of a body and a machine—Details of the action of the machine—Physical explanation of the chief vital functions—The living body is a machine—The living machine constructive as well as destructive—The vital factor 19
CHAPTER II.
THE CELL AND PROTOPLASM.
Vital properties—The discovery of cells—The cell doctrine—The cell—The cellular structure of organisms—The cell wall—Protoplasm—The reign of protoplasm—The decline of the reign of protoplasm—The structure of protoplasm—The nucleus—Centrosome—Function of the nucleus—Cell division or karyokinesis—Fertilization of the egg—The significance of fertilization—What is protoplasm?—Reaction against the cell doctrine—Fundamental vital activities as located in cells—Summary 54
PART II.
THE BUILDING OF THE LIVING MACHINE.
CHAPTER III.
THE FACTORS CONCERNED IN THE BUILDING OF THE LIVING MACHINE.
History of the living machine—Evidence for this history—Historical—Embryological—Anatomical—Significance of these sources of history—Forces at work in the building of the living machine—Reproduction—Heredity—Variation—Inheritance of variations—Method of machine building—Migration and isolation—Direct influence of environment—Consciousness—Summary of Nature's power of building machines—The origin of the cell machine—General summary 131
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
FIGURE PAGE
Amoeba Polypodia in six successive stages of division Frontispiece
1. Figure illustrating osmosis 30
2. Figure illustrating osmosis 31
3. Diagram of the intestinal walls 32
4. Diagram of a single villus 33
5. Enlarged figure of four cells in the villus membrane 33
6. A bit of muscle showing blood-vessels 36
7. A bit of bark showing cellular structure 61
8. Successive stages in the division of the developing egg 63
9. A typical cell 65
10. Cells at a root tip 66
11. Section of a leaf showing cells of different shapes 66
12. Plant cells with thick walls, from a fern 67
13. Section of potato 67
14. Various shaped wood cells from plant tissue 68
15. A bit of cartilage 68
16. Frogs' blood 69
17. A bit of bone 69
18. Connective tissue 70
19. A piece of nerve fibre 70
20. A muscle fibre 71
21. A complex cell, vorticella 71
22. An amoeba 73
23. A cell as it appears to the modern microscope 86
24. A cell cut into pieces, each containing a bit of nucleus 89
25. A cell cut in pieces, only one of which contains any nucleus 90
26. Different forms of nucleii 93
27 and 28. Two stages in cell division 96
29 and 30. Stages in cell division 98
31 and 32. Latest stages in cell division 100
33. An egg 103
34 and 35. Stages in the process of fertilization of the egg 104
36 and 37. Stages in the process of fertilization of the egg 105
38, 39, and 40. Stages in fertilization of the egg 106
41 and 42. Latest stages in the fertilization of the egg 109
43 and 44. Two stages in the division of the egg 111
45. A group of cells resulting from division, the first step in machine building 135
46. A later step in machine building, the gastrula 135
47. The arm of a monkey 144
48. The arm of a bird 144
49. The arm of an ancient half-bird, half-reptile animal 144
50. Diagram to illustrate the principle of heredity 156
THE STORY OF THE LIVING MACHINE.
INTRODUCTION.
Biology a New Science.—In recent years biology has been spoken of as a new science. Thirty years ago departments of biology were practically unknown in educational institutions. To-day none of our higher institutions of learning considers itself equipped without such a department. This seems to be somewhat strange. Biology is simply the study of living things; and living nature has been studied as long as mankind has studied anything. Even Aristotle, four hundred years before Christ, classified living things. From this foundation down through the centuries living phenomena have received constant attention. Recent centuries have paid more attention to living things than to any other objects in nature. Linnaeus erected his systems of classification before modern chemistry came into existence; the systematic study of zoology antedated that of physics; and long before geology had been conceived in its modern form, the animal and vegetable kingdoms had been comprehended in a scientific system. How, then, can biology be called a new science When it is older than all the others?
There must be some reason why this, the oldest of all, has been recently called a new science, and some explanation of the fact that it has only recently advanced to form a distinct department in our educational system. The reason is not difficult to find. Biology is a new science, not because the objects it studies are new, but because it has adopted a new relation to those objects and is studying them from a new standpoint. Animals and plants have been studied long enough, but not as we now study them. Perhaps the new attitude adopted toward living nature may be tersely expressed by saying that in the past it has been studied as at rest, while to-day it is studied as in motion. The older zoologists and botanists confined themselves largely to the study of animals and plants simply as so many museum specimens to be arranged on shelves with appropriate names. The modern biologist is studying these same objects as intensely active beings and as parts of an ever-changing history. To the student of natural history fifty years ago, animals and plants were objects to be classified; to the biologist of to-day, they are objects to be explained.
To understand this new attitude, a brief review of the history of the fundamental features of philosophical thought will be necessary. When, long ago, man began to think upon the phenomena of nature, he was able to understand almost nothing. In his inability to comprehend the activities going on around him he came to regard the forces of nature as manifestations of some supernatural beings. This was eminently natural. He had a direct consciousness of his own power to act, and it was natural for him to assume that the activities going on around him were caused by similar powers on the part of some being like himself, only superior to him. Thus he came to fill the unseen universe with gods controlling the forces of nature. The wind was the breath of one god, and the lightning a bolt thrown from the hands of another.
With advancing thought the ideas of polytheism later gave place to the nobler conception of monotheism. But for a long time yet the same ideas of the supernatural, as related to the natural, retained their place in man's philosophy. Those phenomena which he thought he could understand were looked upon as natural, while those which he could not understand were looked upon as supernatural, and as produced by the direct personal activity of some divine agency. As the centuries passed, and man's power of observation became keener and his thinking more logical, many of the hitherto mysterious phenomena became intelligible and subject to simple explanations. As fast as this occurred these phenomena were unconsciously taken from the realm of the supernatural and placed among natural phenomena which could be explained by natural laws. Among the first mysteries to be thus comprehended by natural law were those of astronomy. The complicated and yet harmonious motions of the heavenly bodies had hitherto been inexplicable. To explain them many a sublime conception of almighty power had arisen, and the study of the heavenly bodies ever gave rise to the highest thoughts of Deity. But Newton's law of gravitation reduced the whole to the greatest simplicity. Through the law and force of gravitation these mysteries were brought within the grasp of human understanding. They ceased to be looked upon as supernatural, and became natural phenomena as soon as the force of gravitation was accepted as a part of nature.
In other branches of natural phenomena the same history followed. The forces and laws of chemical affinity were formulated and studied, and physical laws and forces were comprehended. As these natural forces were grasped it became, little by little, evident that the various phenomena of nature were simply the result of nature's forces acting in accordance with nature's laws. Phenomena hitherto mysterious were one after another brought within the realm of law, and as this occurred a smaller and smaller portion of them were left within the realm of the so-called supernatural. By the middle of this century this advance had reached a point where scientists, at least, were ready to believe that nature's forces were all-powerful to account for nature's phenomena. Science had passed from the reign of mysticism to the reign of law.
But after chemistry and physics, with all the forces that they could muster, had exhausted their powers in explaining natural phenomena, there apparently remained one class of facts which was still left in the realm of the supernatural and the unexplained. The phenomena associated with living things remained nearly as mysterious as ever. Life appeared to be the most inexplicable phenomena of nature, and none of the forces and laws which had been found sufficient to account for other departments of nature appeared to have much influence in rendering intelligible the phenomena of life. Living organisms appeared to be actuated by an entirely unique force. Their shapes and structure showed so many marvellous adaptations to their surroundings as to render it apparently certain that their adjustment must have been the result of some intelligent planning, and not the outcome of blind force. Who could look upon the adaptation of the eye to light without seeing in It the result of intelligent design? Adaptation to conditions is seen in all animals and plants. These organisms are evidently complicated machines with their parts intricately adapted to each other and to surrounding conditions. Apart from animals and plants the only other similarly adjusted machines are those which have been made by human intelligence; and the inference seemed to be clear that a similar intelligence was needed to account for the living machine. The blind action of physical forces seemed inadequate. Thus the phenomena of life, which had been studied longer than any other phase of nature, continued to stand aloof from the rest and refused to fall into line with the general drift of thought. The living world seemed to give no promise of being included among natural phenomena, but still persisted in retaining its supernatural aspect.
It is the attempt to explain the phenomena of the living world by the same kind of natural forces that have been adequate to account for other phenomena, that has created modern Biology. So long as students simply studied animals and plants as objects for classification, as museum objects, or as objects which had been stationary in the history of nature, so long were they simply following along the same lines in which their predecessors had been travelling. But when once they began to ask if living nature were not perhaps subject to an intelligent explanation, to study living things as part of a general history and to look upon them as active moving objects whose motion and whose history might perhaps be accounted for, then at once was created a new department of thought and a new science inaugurated.
Historical Geology.—Preparation had been made for this new method of studying life by the formulation of a number of important scientific discoveries. Prominent among these stood historical geology. That the earth had left a record of her history in the rocks in language plain enough to be read appears to have been impressed upon scientists in the last of the century. That the earth has had a history and that man could read it became more and more thoroughly understood as the first decades of this century passed. The reading of that history proved a somewhat difficult task. It was written in a strange language, and it required many years to discover the key to the record. But under the influence of the writings of Lyell, just before the middle of the century, it began to appear that the key to this language is to be found by simply opening the eyes and observing what is going on around us to-day. A more extraordinary and more important discovery has hardly ever been made, for it contained the foundation of nearly all scientific discoveries which have been made since. This discovery proclaimed that an application of the forces still at work to-day on the earth's surface, but continued throughout long ages, will furnish the interpretation of the history written in the rocks, and thus an explanation of the history of the earth itself. The slow elevation of the earth's crust, such as is still going on to-day, would, if continued, produce mountains; and the washing away of the land by rains and floods, such as we see all around us, would, if continued through the long centuries, produce the valleys and gorges which so astound us. The explanation of the past is to be found in the present. But this geological history told of a history of life as well as a history of rocks. The history of the rocks has indeed been bound up in the history of life, and no sooner did it appear that the earth's crust has had a readable history than it appeared that living nature had a parallel history. If the present is a key to the past in interpreting geological history, should not the same be true of this history of life? It was inevitable that problems of life should come to the front, and that the study of life from the dynamical standpoint, rather than a statical, should ensue. Modern biology was the child of historical geology.
But historical geology alone could never have led to the dynamical phase of modern biology. Three other conceptions have contributed in an even greater degree to the development of this science.
Conservation of Energy.—The first of these was the doctrine of conservation of energy and the correlation of forces. This doctrine is really quite simple, and may be outlined as follows: In the universe, as we know it, there exists a certain amount of energy or power of doing work. This amount of energy can neither be increased nor decreased; energy can no more be created or destroyed than matter. It exists, however, in a variety of forms, which may be either active or passive. In the active state it takes some form of motion. The various forces which we recognize in nature—heat, light, electricity, chemism, etc.—are simply forms of motion, and thus forms of this energy. These various types of energy, being only expressions of the universal energy, are convertible into each other in such a way that when one disappears another appears. A cannon ball flying through the air exhibits energy of motion; but it strikes an obstacle and stops. The motion has apparently stopped, but an examination shows that this is not the case. The cannon ball and the object it strikes have been heated, and thus the motion of the ball has simply been transformed into a different form of motion, which we call heat. Or, again, the heat set free under the locomotive boiler is converted by machinery into the motion of the locomotive. By still different mechanism it may be converted into electric force. All forms of motion are readily convertible into each other, and each form in which energy appears is only a phase of the total energy of nature.
A second condition of energy is energy at rest, or potential energy. A stone on the roof of a house is at rest, but by virtue of its position it has a certain amount of potential energy, since, if dislodged, it will fall to the ground, and thus develop energy of motion. Moreover, it required to raise the stone to the roof the expenditure of an amount of energy exactly equal to that which will reappear if the stone is allowed to fall to the ground. So in a chemical molecule, like fat, there is a store of potential energy which may be made active by simply breaking the molecule to pieces and setting it free. This occurs when the fat burns and the energy is liberated as heat. But it required at some time the expenditure of an equal amount of energy to make the molecule. When the molecule of fat was built in the plant which produced it, there was used in its construction an amount of solar energy exactly equivalent to the energy which may be liberated by breaking the molecule to pieces. The total sum of the active and potential energy in the universe is thus at all times the same.
This magnificent conception has become the cornerstone of modern science. As soon as conceived it brought at once within its grasp all forms of energy in nature. It is primarily a physical doctrine, and has been developed chiefly in connection with the physical sciences. But it shows at once a possible connection between living and non-living nature. The living organism also exhibits motion and heat, and, if the doctrine of the conservation of energy be true, this energy must be correlated with other forms of energy. Here is a suggestion that the same laws control the living and the non-living world; and a suspicion that if we can find a natural explanation of the burning of a piece of coal and the motion of a locomotive, so, too, we may find a natural explanation of the motion of a living machine.
Evolution—A second conception, whose influence upon-the development of biology was even greater, was the doctrine of evolution. It is true that the doctrine of evolution was no new doctrine with the middle of this century, for it had been conceived somewhat vaguely before. But until historical geology had been formulated, and until the idea of the unity of nature had dawned upon the minds of scientists, the doctrine of evolution had little significance. It made little difference in our philosophy whether the living organisms were regarded as independent creations or as descended from each other, so long as they were looked upon as a distinct realm of nature without connection with the rest of nature's activity. If they are distinct from the rest of nature, and therefore require a distinct origin, it makes little difference whether we looked upon that origin as a single originating point or as thousands of independent creations. But so soon as it appeared that the present condition of the earth's crust was formed by the action of forces still in existence, and so soon as it appeared that the forces outside of living forces, including astronomical, physical and chemical forces, are all correlated with each other as parts of the same store of energy, then the problem of the origin of living things assumed a new meaning. Living things became then a part of nature, and demanded to be included in the same general category. The reign of law, which was claiming that all nature's phenomena are the result of natural rather than supernatural powers, demanded some explanation of the origin of living things. Consequently, when Darwin pointed out a possible way in which living phenomena could thus be included in the realm of natural law, science was ready and anxious to receive his explanation.
Cytology.—A third conception which contributed to the formulation of modern biology was derived from the facts discovered in connection with the organic cell and protoplasm. The significance of these facts we shall notice later, but here we may simply state that these discoveries offered to students simplicity in the place of complexity. The doctrine of cells and protoplasm appeared to offer to biologists no longer the complicated problems which were associated with animals and plants, but the same problems stripped of all side issues and reduced to their lowest terms. This simplifying of the problems proved to be an extraordinary stimulus to the students who were trying to find some way of understanding life.
New Aspects of Biology.—These three conceptions seized hold of the scientific world at periods not very distant from each other, and their influence upon the study of living nature was immediate and extraordinary. Living things now came to be looked upon not simply as objects to be catalogued, but as objects which had a history, and a history which was of interest not merely in itself, but as a part of a general plan. They were no longer studied as stationary, but as moving phases of nature. Animals were no longer looked upon simply as beings now existing, but as the results of the action of past forces and as the foundation of a different series of beings in the future. The present existing animals and plants came to be regarded simply as a step in the long history of the universe. It appeared at once that the study of the present forms of life would offer us a means of interpreting the past and perhaps predicting the future.
In a short time the entire attitude which the student assumed toward living phenomena had changed. Biological science assumed new guises and adopted new methods. Even the problems which it tried to solve were radically changed. Hitherto the attempt had been made to find instances of purpose in nature. The marvellous adaptations of living beings to their conditions had long been felt, and the study of the purposes of these adaptations had inspired many a magnificent conception. But now the scientist lost sight of the purpose in hunting for the cause. Natural law is blind and can have no purpose. To the scientist, filled with the thought of the reign of law, purpose could not exist in nature. Only cause and effect appeal to him. The present phenomena are the result of forces acting in the past, and the scientist's search should be not for the purpose of an adaptation, but for the action of the forces which produced it. To discover the forces and laws which led to the development of the present forms of animals and plants, to explain the method by which these forces of nature have acted to bring about present results, these became the objects of scientific research. It no longer had any meaning to find that a special organ was adapted to its conditions; but it was necessary to find out how it became adapted. The difference in the attitude of these two points of view is world-wide. The former fixes the attention upon the end, the latter upon the means by which the end was attained; the former is what we sometimes call teleological, the latter scientific; the former was the attitude of the study of animals and plants before the middle of this century, the latter the spirit which actuates modern biology.
The Mechanical Nature of Living Organisms.—This new attitude forced many new problems to the front. Foremost among them and fundamental to them all were the questions as to the mechanical nature of living organisms. The law of the correlation of force told that the various forms of energy which appear around us—light, heat, electricity, etc.—are all parts of one common store of energy and convertible into each other. The question whether vital energy is in like manner correlated with other forms of energy was now extremely significant. Living forces had been considered as standing apart from the rest of nature. Vital force, or vitality, had been thought of as something distinct in itself; and that there was any measurable relation between the powers of the living organism and the forces of heat and chemical affinity was of course unthinkable before the formulation of the doctrine of the correlation of forces. But as soon as that doctrine was understood it began to appear at once that, to a certain extent at least, the living body might be compared to a machine whose function is simply to convert one kind of energy into another. A steam engine is fed with fuel. In that fuel is a store of energy deposited there perhaps centuries ago. The rays of the sun, shining on the world in earlier ages, were seized upon by the growing plants and stored away in a potential form in the wood which later became coal. This coal is placed in the furnace of the steam engine and is broken to pieces so that it can no longer hold its store of energy, which is at once liberated in its active form as heat. The engine then takes the energy thus liberated, and as a result of its peculiar mechanism converts it into the motion of its great fly-wheel. With this notion clearly in mind the question forces itself to the front whether the same facts are not true of the living animal organism. It, too, is fed with food containing a store of energy; and should we not regard it, like the steam engine, simply a machine for converting this potential energy into motion, heat, or some other active form? This problem of the correlation of vital and physical forces is inevitably forced upon us with the doctrine of the correlation of forces. Plainly, however, such questions were inconceivable before about the middle of the nineteenth century.
This mechanical conception of living activity was carried even farther. Under the lead of Huxley there arose in the seventh decade of the century a view of life which reduced it to a pure mechanism. The microscope had, at that time, just disclosed the universal presence in living things of that wonderful substance, protoplasm. This material appeared to be a homogeneous substance, and a chemical study showed it to be made of chemical elements united in such a way as to show close relation to albumens. It appeared to be somewhat more complex than ordinary albumen, but it was looked upon as a definite chemical compound, or, perhaps, as a simple mixture of compounds. Chemists had shown that the properties of compounds vary with their composition, and that the more complex the compound the more varied its properties. It was a natural conception, therefore, that protoplasm was a complex chemical compound, and that its vital properties were simply the chemical properties resulting from its composition. Just as water possesses the power of becoming solid at certain temperatures, so protoplasm possesses the power of assimilating food and growing; and, since we do not doubt that the properties of water are the result of its chemical composition, so we may also assume that the vital properties of protoplasm are the result of its chemical composition. It followed from this conclusion that if chemists ever succeeded in manufacturing the chemical compound, protoplasm, it would be alive. Vital phenomena were thus reduced to chemical and mechanical problems.
These ideas arose shortly after the middle of the century, and have dominated the development of biological science up to the present time. It is evident that the aim of biological study must be to test these conceptions and carry them out into details. The chemical and mechanical laws of nature must be applied to vital phenomena in order to see whether they can furnish a satisfactory explanation of life. Are the laws and forces of chemistry sufficient to explain digestion? Are the laws of electricity applicable to an understanding of nervous phenomena? Are physical and chemical forces together sufficient to explain life? Can the animal body be properly regarded as a machine controlled by mechanical laws? Or, on the other hand, are there some phases of life which the forces of chemistry and physics cannot account for? Are there limits to the application of natural law to explain life? Can there be found something connected with living beings which is force but not correlated with the ordinary forms of energy? Is there such a thing as vital energy, or is the so-called vital force simply a name which we have given to the peculiar manifestations of ordinary energy as shown in the substance protoplasm? These are some of the questions that modern biology is trying to answer, and it is the existence of such questions which has made modern biology a new science. Such questions not only did not, but could not, have arisen before the doctrines of the conservation of energy and evolution had made their impression upon the thought of the world.
Significance of the New Biological Problems—It is further evident that the answers to these questions will have a significance reaching beyond the domain of biology proper and affecting the fundamental philosophy of nature. The answer will determine whether or not we can accept in entirety the doctrines of the conservation of energy and evolution. Plainly if it should be found that the energy of animate nature was not correlated with other forms of energy, this would demand either a rejection or a complete modification of our doctrine of the conservation of energy. If an animal can create any energy within itself, or can destroy any energy, we can no longer regard the amount of energy of the universe as constant. Even if that subtile form of force which we call nervous energy should prove to be uncorrelated with other forms of energy, the idea of the conservation of energy must be changed. It is even possible that we must insist that the still more subtile form of force, mental force, must be brought within the scope of this great law in order that it be implicitly accepted. This law has proved itself strictly applicable to the inanimate world, and has then thrust upon us the various questions in regard to vital force, and we must recognize that the real significance of this great law must rest upon the possibility of its application to vital phenomena.
No less intimate is the relation of these problems to the doctrine of evolution. Evolution tries to account for each moment in the history of the world as the result of the conditions of the moment before. Such a theory loses its meaning unless it can be shown that natural forces are sufficient to account for living phenomena. If the supernatural must be brought in here and there to account for living phenomena, then evolution ceases to have much meaning. It is undoubtedly a fact that the rapidly developing ideas along the above mentioned lines of dynamical biology have, been potent factors in bringing about the adoption of evolution. Certain it is that, had it been found that no correlation could be traced between vital and non-vital forces, the doctrine of evolution could not have stood, and even now the special significance which we shall in the end give to evolution will depend upon how we succeed in answering the questions above outlined. The fact is that this problem of the mechanical explanation of vital phenomena forms the capstone of the arch, the sides of which are built of the doctrines of the conservation of energy and the theory of evolution. To the presentation of these problems the following pages will be devoted. The fact that both the doctrine of the conservation of energy and that of evolution are practically everywhere accepted indicates that the mechanical nature of vital forces is regarded as proved. But there are still many questions which are not so easily answered. It will be our purpose in the following discussion to ascertain just what are these problems in dynamical biology and how far they have been answered. Our object will be then in brief to discover to what extent the conception of the living organism as a machine is borne out by the facts which have been collected in the last quarter century, and to learn where, if anywhere, limits have been found to our possibility of applying the forces of chemistry and physics to an explanation of life. In other words, we shall try to see how far we have been able to understand living phenomena in terms of natural force.
Outline of the Subject.—The subject, as thus presented, resolves itself at once into two parts. That the living organism is a machine is everywhere recognized, although some may still doubt as to the completeness of the comparison. In the attempt to explain the phenomena of life we have two entirely different problems. The first is manifestly to account for the existence of this machine, for such a completed piece of mechanism as a man or a tree cannot be explained as a result of simple accident, as the existence of a rough piece of rock might be explained. Its intricacy of parts and their purposeful interrelation demands explanation, and therefore the fundamental problem is to explain how this machine came into existence. The second problem is simpler, for it is simply to explain the running of the machine after it is made. If the organism is really a machine, we ought to be able to find some way of explaining its actions as we can those of a steam engine.
Of these two problems the first is the more fundamental, for if we fail to find an explanation for the existence of the machine, our explanation of its method of action is only partly satisfactory. But the second question is the simpler, and must be answered first. We cannot hope to explain the more puzzling matter of the origin of the machine unless we can first understand how it acts. In our treatment of the subject, therefore, we shall divide it into two parts:
I. The Running of the Living Machine.
II. The Origin of the Living Machine.
PART I.
THE RUNNING OF THE LIVING MACHINE.
* * * * *
CHAPTER I.
IS THE BODY A MACHINE?
The problem before us in this section is to find out to what extent animals and plants are machines. We wish to determine whether the laws and forces which regulate their activities are the same as the laws and forces with which we experiment in the chemical and physical laboratory, and whether the principles of mechanics and the doctrine of the conservation of energy apply equally well in the living machine and the steam engine.
It might be inferred that the proper method of study would be to confine our attention largely to the simplest forms of life, since the problems would be here less complicated, and therefore of easier solution. This, however, has not been nor can it be the method of study. Our knowledge of the processes of life have been derived largely from the most rather than the least complex forms. We have a better knowledge of the physiology of man and his allies than any other animals. The reason for this is plain enough. In the first place, there is a value in the knowledge of the life activities of man entirely apart from any theoretical aspects, and hence human physiology has demanded attention for its own sake. The practical utility of human physiology has stimulated its study for centuries; and in the last fifty years of scientific progress it has been human physiology and that of allied animals that has attracted the chief attention of physiologists. The result is that while the physiology of man is tolerably well known, that of other animals is less understood the farther we get away from man and his allies. For this reason most of our knowledge of the living body as a machine must be derived from the study of man. This is, however, fortunate rather than otherwise. In the first place, it enables us to proceed from the known to the unknown; and in the second place, more interest attaches to the problem as connected with human physiology than along any other line. In our discussion, therefore, we shall refer chiefly to the physiology of man. If we find that the functions of human life are amenable to a mechanical explanation we cannot hesitate to believe that this will be equally true of the lower orders of nature. For similar reasons little reference will be made to the mechanism of plant life. The structure of the plant is simpler and its activities are much more easily referable to mechanical principles than are those of animals. For these reasons it will only be necessary for us to turn our attention to the life activities of the higher animals.
What is a Machine?—Turning now to our more immediate subject of the accuracy of the statement that the body is a machine, we must first ask what is meant by a machine? A brief definition of a machine might be as follows: A machine is a piece of apparatus so designed that it can change one kind of energy into another for a definite purpose. Energy, as already noticed, is the power of doing work, and its ordinary active forms are heat, motion, electricity, light, etc.; but it may be in a passive or potential form, and in this form stored within a chemical molecule. These various forms of energy are readily convertible into each other; and any form of apparatus designed for the purpose of producing such a conversion is called a machine. A dynamo is thus a machine so adjusted that when mechanical motion is supplied to it the energy of motion is converted into electricity; while an electromotor, on the other hand, is a piece of apparatus so designed that when electricity is applied to it, it is converted into motion. A steam engine, again, is designed to convert potential or passive energy into active energy. Potential energy in the form of chemical composition (coal) is supplied to the engine, and this energy is first liberated in the active form of heat and then is converted into the motion of the great fly-wheel. In all these cases there is no energy or power created, for the machine must be always supplied with an amount of energy equal to that which it gives back in another form. Indeed, a larger amount of energy must be furnished the machine than is expected back, for there is always an actual loss of available energy. In the process of the conversion of one form of energy into another some of the energy, from friction or other cause, takes the form of heat, and is then radiated into space beyond our reach. It is, of course, not destroyed, for energy cannot be destroyed; but it has assumed a form called radiant heat, which is not available for our uses. A machine thus neither creates nor destroys energy. It receives it in one form and gives it back in another form, with an inevitable loss of a portion of the energy as radiant heat. With this understanding, we may now ask if the living body can be properly compared with a machine.
A General Comparison of a Body and a Machine.—That the living body exhibits the ordinary types of energy is of course clear enough when we remember that it is always in motion and is always radiating heat—two of the most common types of physical energy. That this energy is supplied to the body as it is to other machines, in the form of the energy of chemical composition, will also need no further proof when it is remembered that it is necessary to supply the body with appropriate food in order that it may do work. The food we eat, like coal, represents so much solar energy which is stored up by the agency of plant life, and the close comparison between feeding the body to enable it to work and feeding the engine to enable it to develop energy is so evident that it demands no further demonstration. The details of the problem may, however, present some difficulties.
The first question which presents itself is whether the only power the body possesses is, as in the case with other machines, to transform energy without being able to create or destroy it? Can every bit of energy shown by the living organism be accounted for by energy furnished in the food, and conversely can all the energy furnished in the food be found manifested in the living organism?
The theoretical answer to this question in terms of the law of the conservation of energy is clear enough, but it is by no means so easy to answer it by experimental data. To obtain experimental demonstration it would be necessary to make an accurate determination of the amount of energy an individual receives during a given period, and at the same time a similar measurement of the amount of energy liberated in his body either as motion or heat. If the body is a machine, these two should exactly balance, and if they do not balance it would indicate that the living organism either creates or destroys energy, and is therefore not a machine. Such experiments are exceedingly difficult. They must be performed usually upon man rather than other animals, and it is necessary to inclose an individual in an absolutely sealed space with arrangements for furnishing him with air and food in measured quantity, and with appliances for measuring accurately the work he does and the heat given off from his body. In addition, it is necessary to measure the exact amount of material he eliminates in the form of carbonic acid and other excretions. Such experiments present many difficulties which have not yet been thoroughly overcome, but they have been attempted by several investigators. For the purpose of such an experiment scientists have allowed themselves to be shut up in a small chamber six or eight feet in length, in which their only communication with the outer world is by telephone and through a small opening in the side of the chamber, occasionally opened for a second or two to supply the prisoner with food. In such a chamber they have remained as long as twelve days. In these experiments it is necessary to take account not only of the food eaten, but of the actual amount of this food which is used by the body. If the person gains in weight, this must mean that he is storing up in his body material for future use; while if he loses in weight, this means that he is consuming his own tissues for fuel. Careful daily records of his weight must therefore be taken. Estimates of the solids, liquids, and gases given off from his body must be obtained, for to carry out the experiment an exact balance must be made between the income and the outgo. The apparatus devised for such experiments has been made very delicate; so delicate, indeed, that the rising of the individual in the box from his chair is immediately seen in a rise in temperature of the apparatus. But even with this delicacy the apparatus is comparatively coarse, and can measure only the most apparent forms of energy. The more subtle types of energy, such as nervous force, if this is to be regarded as energy, do not make any impression on the apparatus.
The obstacles in the way of these experiments do not particularly concern us, but the general results are of the greatest significance for our purpose. While, for manifest reasons, it has not been possible to carry on these experiments for any great length of time, and while the results have not yet been very accurately refined, they are all of one kind and teach unhesitatingly one conclusion. So far as concerns measurable energy or measurable material, the body behaves just like any other machine. If the body is to do work in this respiration apparatus, it does so only by breaking to pieces a certain amount of food and using the energy thus liberated, and the amount of food needed is proportional to the amount of work done. When the individual simply walks across the floor, or even rises from his chair, this is accompanied by an increase in the amount of food material broken up and a consequent increase in the amount of refuse matter eliminated and the heat given off. The income and outgo of the body in both matter and energy is balanced. If, during the experimental period, it is found that less energy is liberated than that contained in the food assimilated, it is also found that the body has gained in weight, which simply means that the extra energy has been stored in the body for future use. No more energy can be obtained from the body than is furnished, and for all furnished in the food an equivalent amount is regained. There is no trace of any creation or destruction of energy. While, on account of the complexity of the experimenting, an absolutely strict balance sheet cannot be made, all the results are of the same nature. So far as concerns measurable energy, all the facts collected bear out the theoretical conception that the living body is to be regarded as a machine which converts the potential energy of chemical composition, stored passively in its food, into active energy of motion and heat.
It is found, however, that the body is a machine of a somewhat superior grade, since it is able to convert this potential energy into motion with less loss than the ordinary machine. As noticed above, in all machines a portion of the energy is converted into heat and rendered unavailable by radiating into space. In an ordinary engine only about one-fifteenth of the energy furnished in the coal can be regained in the form of motive power, the rest being radiated from the machine as heat. Some of our better engines to-day utilize a somewhat larger part, but most of them utilize less than one-tenth. The experiments with the living body in the respiration apparatus above described, give a means of determining the proportion of the energy furnished in the form of food which can be utilized in the form of motive force. This figure appears to be decidedly larger than that obtained by any machine yet devised by man.
The conclusion of the matter up to this point is then clear. If we leave out of account the phenomena of the nervous system, which we shall consider presently, the general income and outgo of the body as concerns matter and energy is such that the body must be regarded as a machine, which, like other machines, simply transforms energy without creating or destroying it. To this extent, at least, animals conform to the law of the conservation of energy and are veritable machines.
Details of the Action of the Machine.—We turn next to some of the subordinate problems concerning the details of the action of the living machine. We have a clear understanding of the method of action of a steam engine. Its mechanism is simple, and, moreover, it was designed by human intelligence. We can understand how the force of chemical affinity breaks up the chemical composition of the coal, how the heat thus liberated is applied to the water to vapourize it; how the vapour is collected in the boiler under pressure; how this pressure is applied to the piston in the cylinder, and how this finally results in the revolution of the fly-wheel. It is true that we do not understand the underlying forces of chemism, etc., but these forces certainly exist and are the foundation of science. But the mechanism of the engine is intelligible. Our understanding of it is such that, with the forces of chemistry and physics as a foundation, we can readily explain the running of the machine. Our next problem, therefore, is to see if we can in the same way reach an understanding of the phenomena of the living machine. Can we, by the use of these same chemical and physical forces, explain the activities taking place in the living organism? Can the motion of the body, for example, be made as intelligible as the motion of the steam engine?
Physical Explanation of the Chief Vital Functions.—The living machine is, of course, vastly more complicated than the steam engine, and there are many different processes which must be considered separately. There is not space in a work of this size to consider them all carefully, but we may select a few of the vital functions as illustrations of the method which is pursued. It will be assumed that the fundamental processes of human physiology are understood by the reader, and we shall try to interpret some of them in terms of chemical and physical force.
Digestion.—The first step in this transformation of fuel is the process of digestion. Now this process of digestion is nothing mysterious, nor does it involve any peculiar or special forces. Digestion of food is simply a chemical change therein. The food which is taken into the body in the form of sugar, starch, fat or protein, is acted upon by the digestive juices in such a way that its chemical nature is slightly changed. But the changes that thus occur are not peculiar to the living body, since they will take place equally well in the chemist's laboratory. They are simply changes in the molecular structure of the food material, and only such changes as are simple and familiar to the chemist. The forces which effect the change are undoubtedly those of chemical affinity. The only feature of the process which is not perfectly intelligible in terms of chemical law is the nature of the digestive juices. The digestive fluids of the mouth and stomach contain certain substances which possess a somewhat remarkable power, inasmuch as they are able to bring about the chemical changes which occur in the digestion of food. An example will make this clearer. One of the digestive processes is the conversion of starch into sugar. The relation of these two bodies is a very simple one, starch being readily converted into sugar by the addition to its molecule of a molecule of water. The change can not be produced by simply adding starch to water, but the water must be introduced into the starch molecule. This change can be brought about in a variety of ways, and is undoubtedly effected by the forces of chemical affinity. Chemists have found simple methods of producing this chemical union, and the manufacture of sugar out of starchy material has even become something of a commercial industry. One of the methods by which this change can be produced is by adding to the starch, along with some water, a little saliva. The saliva has the power of causing the chemical change to occur at once, and the molecule of water enters into the starch molecule and forms sugar. Now we do not understand how this saliva possesses this power to induce the chemical change. But apparently the process is of the simplest character and involves no greater mystery than chemical affinity. We know that the saliva contains a certain material called a ferment, which is the active agent in bringing about the change. This ferment is not alive, nor does it need any living environment for its action. It can be separated from the saliva in the form of a dry amorphous powder, and in this form can be preserved almost indefinitely, retaining its power to effect the change whenever put under proper conditions. The change of starch into sugar is thus a simple chemical change occurring under the influence of chemical affinity under certain conditions. One of the conditions is the presence of this saliva ferment. If we can not exactly understand how the ferment produces this action, neither do we exactly understand how a spark causes a bit of gunpowder to explode. But we can not doubt that the latter is a purely natural result of the relation of chemical and physical forces, and there is no more reason for doubting it in the former case.
What is true of the digestion of starch by saliva is equally true of the digestion of other foods in the stomach and intestine. Each of the digestive juices contains a ferment which brings about a chemical change in the food. The changes are always chemical changes and are the result of chemical forces. Apart from the presence of these ferments there is really little difference between laboratory chemistry and living chemistry.
Absorption of food.—The next function of this machine to attract our attention is the absorption of food from the intestine into the blood. The digested food is carried down the alimentary canal in a purely mechanical fashion by muscular action, and when it reaches the intestine it begins to pass through its walls into the blood. In this absorption we find engaged another set of forces, the chief of which appears to be the physical force of osmosis. The force of osmosis has no special connection with life. If a membrane separates two liquids of different composition (Fig. i), a force is exerted on the liquids which cause them to pass through the membrane, each passing through the membrane into the other compartment. The force which drives these liquids through the membrane is considerable, and may sometimes be exerted against considerable pressure. A simple experiment will illustrate this force. In Fig. 2 is represented a membranous bag tightly fastened to a glass tube. The bag is filled with a strong solution of sugar, and is immersed in a vessel containing pure water. Under these conditions some of the sugar solution passes through the bag into the water, and some of the water passes from the vessel into the bag. But if the solution of sugar is inside the bag and the pure water outside, the amount of liquid passing into the bag is greater than the amount passing out; the bag soon becomes distended and the water even rises in the tube to a considerable height at a(Fig. 2). The force here concerned is a force known as osmosis or dialysis, and is always exerted when two different solutions of certain substances are separated from each other by a membrane. The substances in solution will, under these conditions, pass from the dense to the weaker solution. The process is a purely physical one.
This process of osmosis lies at the basis of the absorption of food from the alimentary canal. In the first place, most of the food when swallowed is not soluble, and therefore not capable of osmosis. But the process of digestion, as we have seen, changes the chemical nature of the food. The food, as the result of chemical change, has become soluble, and after being dissolved it is dialyzable—i.e., capable of osmosis. After digestion, therefore, the food is dissolved in the liquids in the stomach and intestine, and is in proper condition for dialysis. Furthermore, the structure of the intestine is such as to produce conditions adapted for dialysis. This can be understood from Fig. 3, which represents diagrammatically a cross section through the intestinal wall. Within the intestinal wall, at A, is the food mass in solution. At B are shown little projections of the intestinal wall, called villi extending into this food and covered by a membrane. One of these villi is shown more highly magnified in Fig. 4, in which B shows this membrane. Inside of these villi are blood-vessels, C, and it will be thus seen that the membrane, B, separates two liquids, one containing the dissolved food outside the villus, and the other containing blood inside the villus. Here are proper conditions for osmosis, and this process of dialysis will take place whenever the intestinal contents holds more dialyzable material than the blood. Under these conditions, which will always occur after food has been digested by the digestive juices, the food will begin to pass through this membranous wall of the intestine into the blood under the influence of the physical force of osmosis. Thus the primary factor in food absorption is a physical one.
We must notice, however, that the physical force of osmosis is not the only factor concerned in absorption. In the first place, it is found that the food during its passage through the intestinal wall, or shortly afterwards, undergoes a further change, so that by the time it has fairly reached the blood it has again changed its chemical nature. These changes are, however, of a chemical nature, and, while we do not yet know very much about them, they are of the same sort as those of digestion, and involve probably nothing more than chemical processes.
Secondly, we notice that there is one phase of absorption which is still obscure. Part of the food is composed of fat, and this fat, as the result of digestion, is mechanically broken up into extremely minute droplets. Although these droplets are of microscopic size they are not actually in solution, and therefore not subject to the force of osmosis which only affects solutions. The osmotic force will not force fat drops through membranes, and to explain their passage through the walls of the intestine requires something additional. We are as yet, however, able to give only a partial explanation of this matter. The inner wall of the intestine is not an inert, lifeless membrane, but is made of active bits of living matter. These bits of living matter appear to seize hold of the droplets of oil by means of little processes which they thrust out, and then pass them through their own bodies to excrete them on their inner surface into the blood vessels. Fig. 5 shows a few of these living bits of the membrane, each containing several such fat droplets. This fat absorption thus appears to be a vital process, and not one simply controlled by physical forces like osmosis. Here our explanation runs against what we call vital power of the ultimate elements of the body. The consideration of this vital feature we must, of course, investigate further; but this will be done later. At present our purpose is a general comparison of the body and a machine, and we may for a little postpone the consideration of this vital phenomenon.
Circulation.—The next piece of mechanism for us to consider in this machine is the device for distributing this fuel to the various parts of the machine where it is to be used as a source of energy, corresponding in a sense to the fireman of a locomotive. This mechanism we call the circulatory system. It consists of a series of tubes, or blood vessels, running to every part of the body and supplying every bit of tissue. Within the tubes is the blood, which, from its liquid nature, is easily forced around the body through the tubes. At the centre of the system is a pump which keeps the blood in motion. The tubes form a closed system, such that the pump, or heart, may suck the blood in from one side to force it out into the tubes on the other side; and the blood, after passing over the body in this closed set of tubes, is finally brought back again to be forced once more over the same path. As this blood is carried around the body it conveys from one part of the machine to another all material that needs distribution. While in the intestine, as already noticed (Fig. 3), it receives the food, and now this food is carried by the circulation to the muscles or the other organs that need it. While in the lungs the blood receives oxygen, and this oxygen is then carried to those parts of the body that need it. The circulatory system is thus simply a medium by which each part of the machine may receive its proper share of the supplies needed for its action.
Now in this circulation we have again to do with chemical and physical forces. All of its general phenomena are based upon purely mechanical principles. The action of the heart—leaving out of consideration for a moment its muscular power—is that of a simple pump. It is provided with valves whose action is as simple and as easy to understand as those of any water pump. By the action of these valves the blood is kept circulating in one direction. The blood vessels are elastic, and the study of the effect of a liquid pumped rhythmically into elastic tubes explains with simplicity the various phenomena associated with the circulation. For example, the rhythmically contracting heart forces a small quantity of blood into the arteries at short intervals. These tubes are large near the heart, but smaller at their ends, where they flow into the veins, so that the blood does not flow out into the veins so readily as it flows in from the heart. The jet of blood that is sent in with every beat of the heart slightly stretches the artery, and the tension thus produced causes the blood to continue to flow between the beats. But the heart continues beating, and there is an accumulation of the blood in the arteries until it exists under some pressure—a pressure sufficient to force it rapidly through the small ends of the arteries into the veins. After passing into the veins the pressure is at once removed, since the veins are larger than the arteries, and there is no resistance to the flow of the blood. Hence the blood in the arteries is under pressure, while there is little or no pressure in the veins. Into the details of this matter we need not go, but this will be sufficient to indicate that the whole process is a mechanical one.
We must not fail to see, however, that in this problem of circulation there are two points at least where once more we meet with that class of phenomena which we still call vital. The beating of the heart is the first of these, for this is active muscular power. The second is a contraction of the smaller blood-vessels which regulates the blood supply. Both of these phenomena are phases of muscular activity, and will be included under the discussion of other similar phenomena later.
We next notice that not only is the distribution of the blood explained upon mechanical principles, but the supplying of the active parts of the body with food is in the same way intelligible. As we have seen, the blood coming from the intestine contains the food material received from the digested food. Now when this blood in its circulation flows through the active tissues—for instance, the muscles—it is again placed under conditions where osmosis is sure to occur. In the muscles the thin-walled blood-vessels are surrounded and bathed by a liquid called lymph. Figure 6 shows a bit of muscle tissue, with its blood-vessels, which are surrounded by lymph. The lymph, which is not shown, fills all the space outside the blood-vessels, thus bathing both muscles and blood-vessels. Here again we have a membrane (i.e., the wall of the blood-vessel) separating two liquids, and since the lymph is of a different composition from the blood, dialysis between them is sure to occur, and the materials which passed into the blood in the intestine through the influence of the osmotic force, now pass out into the lymph under the influence of the same force. The food is thus brought into the lymph; and since the lymph lies in actual contact with the living muscle fibres, these fibres are now able to take directly from the lymph the material needed for their use. The power which enables the muscle fibre to take the material it needs, discarding the rest, is, again, one of the vital processes which we defer for a moment.
Respiration.—Pursuing the same line of study, we turn for a moment to the relation of the circulatory system to the function of supplying the body with oxygen gas. Oxygen is absolutely needed to carry on the functions of life; for these, like those of the engine, are based upon the oxidation of the fuel. The oxygen is derived from the air in the simplest manner. During its circulation the blood is brought for a fraction of a second into practical contact with air. This occurs in the lungs, where there are great numbers of air cells, in the walls of which the blood-vessels are distributed in great profusion. While the blood is in these vessels it is not indeed in actual contact with the air, but is separated from it by only a very thin membrane—so thin that it forms no hindrance to the interchange of gases. These air-cells are kept filled with air by simple muscular action. By the contraction of the muscles of the thorax the thoracic cavity is enlarged, and as a result air is sucked in in exactly the same way that it is sucked into a pair of bellows when expanded. Then the contraction of another set of muscles decreases the size of the thoracic cavity, and the air is squeezed out again. The action is just as truly mechanical as is that of the blacksmith's bellows.
The relation of the air to the blood is just as simple. In the blood there are various chemical ingredients, among which is one known as haemoglobin. It does not concern us at present to ask where this material comes from, since this question is part of the broader question, the origin of the machine, to be discussed in the second part of this work. The haemoglobin is a normal constituent of the blood, and, being red in colour, gives the red colour to the blood. This haemoglobin has peculiar relations to oxygen. It can be separated from the blood and experimented upon by the chemist in his laboratory. It is found that when haemoglobin is brought in contact with oxygen, under sufficient pressure it will form a chemical union with it. This chemical union is, however, what the chemist calls a loose combination, since it is readily broken up. If the oxygen is above a certain rather low pressure, the union will take place; while if the pressure be below this point the union is at once destroyed, and the oxygen leaves the haemoglobin to become free. All of this is a purely chemical matter, and can be demonstrated at will in a test tube in the laboratory. But this union and disassociation is just what occurs as the foundation of respiration. The blood coming to the lungs contains haemoglobin, and since the oxygen pressure in the air is quite high, this haemoglobin unites at once with a quantity of oxygen while the blood is flowing through the air-vessels. The blood is then carried off in the circulation to the active tissues like the muscles. These tissues are constantly using oxygen to carry on their life processes, and consequently at all times use up about all the oxygen within their reach. The result is that in these tissues the oxygen pressure is very low, and when the oxygen-laden haemoglobin reaches them the association of the haemoglobin with oxygen is at once broken up and the oxygen set free in the tissue. It passes at once to the lymph, from which the active tissues seize it for the purpose of carrying on the oxidizing processes of the body. This whole matter of supplying the body with oxygen is thus fundamentally a chemical one, controlled by chemical laws.
Removal of Waste.—The next step in this life process is one of difficulty. After the food and oxygen have reached the tissues it is seized by the living cell. The food material is now oxidized by the oxygen and its latent energy is liberated, and appears in the form of motion or heat or some other vital function. Herein is the really mysterious part of the life process; but for the present we will overlook the mystery of this action, and consider the results from a purely material standpoint.
In a steam engine the fundamental process by which the latent energy of the fuel is liberated is that of oxidation. The oxygen of the air unites with the chemical elements of the fuel, and breaks up that fuel into simple compounds—which may be chiefly considered as three—carbonic dioxide (CO{2}), water (H{2}O), and ash. The energy contained in the original compound can not be held by these simpler bodies, and it therefore escapes as heat. Just the same process, with of course difference in details, is found in the living machine. The food, after reaching the living cell, is united with the oxygen, and, so far as chemical results are concerned, the process is much the same as if it occurred outside the body. The food is broken into simpler compounds and the contained energy is liberated. The energy is, by the mechanism of the machine, changed into motion or nervous impulse, etc. The food is broken into simple compounds, which are chiefly carbonic dioxide, water, and ash; the ash being, however, quite different from the ash obtained from burning coal. Now the engine must have its chimney to remove the gases and vapours (the CO{2} and H{2}O) and its ashpit for the ashes. In the same way the living machine has its excretory system for removing wastes. In the removal of the carbonic acid and water we have to do once more with the respiratory system, and the process is simply a repetition of the story of gas diffusion, chemical union, and osmosis. It is sufficient here to say that the process is just as simple and as easily explained as those already described. The elimination of these wastes is simply a problem of chemistry and mechanics.
In the removal of the ash, however, we have something more, for here again we are brought up against the vital action of the cell. This ash takes chiefly the form of a compound known as urea, which finds its way into the general circulatory system. From the blood it is finally removed by the kidneys. In the kidneys are a large number of bits of living matter (kidney cells), which have the power of seizing hold of the urea as the blood is flowing over them, and after thus taking it out of the blood they deposit it in a series of tubes which lead to the bladder and hence to the exterior. The bringing of this ash to the kidney cell is a mechanical matter, based simply upon the flow of the blood. The seizing of the urea by the kidney cell is a vital phenomenon which we must waive for the moment.
Up to this point in the analysis there has been no difficulty, and no one can fail to agree with the conclusions. The position we reach is as follows: So far as relates to the general problems of energy in the universe the body is a machine. It neither creates nor destroys energy, but simply transforms one form into another. In attempting to explain the action of the machine, we find that for the functions thus far considered (sometimes called the vegetative functions) the laws of chemistry and physics furnish adequate explanation.
We must now look a little further, and question some of the functions the mechanical nature of which is less obvious. The whole operation thus far described is under the control of the nervous system, which acts somewhat like the engineer of an engine. Can this phase of living activity be included within the conception of the body as a machine?
Nervous System.—When we come to try to apply mechanical principles to the nervous system, we meet with what seems at first to be no thoroughfare. While dealing with the grosser questions of chemical compounds, heat, and motion, there is little difficulty in applying natural laws to the explanation of living phenomena. But the problem with the nervous system is very different. It is only to-day that we are finding that the problem is open to study, to say nothing of solution. It is true that mental and other nervous phenomena have been studied for a long time, but this study has been simply the study of these phenomena by themselves without a thought of their correlation with other phenomena of nature. It is a matter of quite recent conception that nervous phenomena have any direct relation to the other realms of nature.
Our first question must be whether we can find any correlation between nervous energy and other types of energy. For our purpose it will be convenient to distinguish between the phenomena of simple nervous transmission and the phenomena of mental activity. The former are the simpler, and offer the greatest hope of solution. If we are to find any correlation between nervous energy and other physical energy, we must do so by finding some way of measuring nervous energy and comparing it with the latter. This has been very difficult, for we have no way of measuring a nervous impulse directly. In the larger experiments upon the income and outgo of the body, in the respiration apparatus mentioned above, nervous phenomena apparently leave no trace. So far as experiments have gone as yet, there is no evidence of an expenditure of extra physical energy when the nervous system is in action. This is not surprising, however, for this apparatus is entirely too coarse to measure such delicate factors.
That there is a correlation between nervous energy and physical energy is, however, pretty definitely proved by experiments along different lines. The first step in this direction was to find that a nervous stimulus can be measured at least indirectly. When the nerve is stimulated there passes from one end to the other an impulse, and the rapidity with which it travels can be accurately measured. When such an impulse reaches the brain it may give rise to a conscious sensation, and a somewhat definite estimation can be made of the amount of time required for this. The periods are very short, of course, but they are not instantaneous. The nervous impulse, can be studied in still other ways. We find that the impulse can be started by ordinary forms of energy. A mechanical shock, a chemical or an electrical shock will develop nervous energy. Now these are ordinary forms of physical energy, and if, when they are applied to a nerve, they give rise to a nervous stimulus, the inference is certainly a legitimate one that the nerve is simply a bit of machinery adapted to the conversion of certain kinds of physical energy into nervous energy. If this is the case, then it is necessary to regard nervous energy as correlated with other forms of energy.
Other facts point in the same direction. Not only can the nervous stimulus be developed by an electric shock, but the strength of the stimulus is within certain limits proportional to the strength of the shock which produces it. Again, not only is it found that an electrical shock can develop a nervous stimulus, but conversely a nervous stimulus develops electrical energy. In ordinary nerves, even when not active, slight electric currents can be detected. They are extremely slight, and require the most delicate instruments for their detection. Now when a nerve is stimulated these currents are immediately affected in such a way that under proper conditions they are increased in intensity. The increase is sufficient to make itself easily seen by the motion of a galvanometer. The motion of the galvanometer under these conditions gives a ready means of studying the character of the nervous impulse. By its use it can be determined that the nerve impulse travels along the nerve like a wave, and we can approximately determine the length and shape of the wave and its relative height at various points.
Now what is the significance of all these facts for our discussion? Together they point clearly to the conclusion that nervous energy is correlated with other forms of physical energy. Since the nervous stimulus is started by other forms of energy, and since it can, in turn, modify ordinary forms of energy, we can not avoid the conclusion that the nervous impulse is only a special form of energy developed within the nerve. It is a form of wave motion peculiar to the nerve substance, but correlated with and developed from other types of energy. This, of course, makes the nerve simply a bit of machinery.
If this conclusion is true, the development of a nerve impulse would mean that a certain portion of food is broken to pieces in the body to liberate energy, and this should be accompanied by an elimination of carbonic dioxide and heat. This is easily shown to be true of muscle action. When we remove a muscle from the body it may remain capable of contracting for some time. By studying it under these conditions we find that it gives rise to carbonic dioxide and other substances, and liberates heat whenever it contracts. As already noticed, in the respiration experiments, whenever the individual experimented upon makes any motions, there is an accompanying elimination of waste products and a development of heat. But this does not appear to be demonstrable for the actions of the nervous system. Although very careful experiments have been made, it has as yet been found impossible to detect any rise in temperature when a nerve impulse is passing through a nerve, nor is there any demonstrable excretion of waste products. This would be a serious objection to the conception of the nerve as a machine were it not for the fact that the nerve is so small that the total sum of its nervous energy must be very slight. The total energy of this minute machine is so slight that it can not be detected by our comparatively rough instruments of measurement.
In short, all evidence goes to show that the nerve impulse is a form of motion, and hence of energy, correlated with other forms of physical energy. The nerve is, however, a very delicate machine, and its total amount of energy is very small. A tiny watch is a more delicate machine than a water-wheel, and its actions are more dependent upon the accuracy of its adjustment. The water-wheel may be made very coarse and yet be perfectly efficacious, while the watch must be fashioned with extreme delicacy. Yet the water-wheel transforms vastly more energy than the watch. It may drive the many machines in a factory, while the watch can do no more than move itself. But who can doubt that the watch, as well as the water-wheel, is governed by the law of the correlation of forces? So the nervous system of the living machine is delicately adjusted and easily put out of order, and its action involves only a small amount of energy; but it is just as truly subject to the law of the conservation of energy as is the more massive muscle.
Sensations.—Pursuing this subject further, we next notice that it is possible to trace a connection between physical energy and sensations. Sensations are excited by certain external forms of motion. The living machine has, for example, one piece of apparatus capable of being affected by rapidly vibrating waves of air. This bit of the machine we call the ear. It is made of parts delicately adjusted, so that vibrating waves of air set them in motion, and their motion starts a nervous stimulus travelling along the auditory nerve. As a result this apparatus will be set in motion, and an impulse sent along the auditory nerve whenever that external type of motion which we call sound strikes the ear. In other words, the ear is a piece of apparatus for changing air vibrations into nervous stimulation, and is therefore a machine. Apparently the material in the ear is like a bit of gunpowder, capable of being exploded by certain kinds of external excitation; but neither the gunpowder nor the material in the ear develops any energy other than that in it at the outset. In the same way the optic nerve has, at its end, a bit of mechanism readily excited by light vibrations of the ether, and hence the optic nerve will always be excited when ether vibrations chance to have an opportunity of setting the optic machinery in motion. And so on with the other senses. Each sensory nerve has, at its end, a bit of machinery designed for the transformation of certain kinds of external energy into nervous energy, just as a dynamo is a machine for transforming motion into electricity. If the machine is broken, the external force has no longer any power of acting upon it, and the individual becomes deaf or blind.
Mental Phenomena.—Thus far in our analysis we need not hesitate in recognizing a correlation between physical and nervous energy. Even though nervous energy is very subtle and only affects our instruments of measurements under exceptional conditions, the fact that nervous forces are excited by physical forces, and are themselves directly measurable, indicates that they are correlated with physical forces. Up to this point, then, we may confidently say that the nervous system is part of the machine.
But when we turn to the more obscure parts of the nervous phenomena, those which we commonly call mental, we find ourselves obliged to stop abruptly. We may trace the external force to the sensory organ, we may trace this force into a nervous stimulus, and may follow this stimulus to the brain as a wave motion, and therefore as a form of physical energy. But there we must stop. We have no idea of how the nervous impulse is converted into a sensation. The mental side of the sensation appears to stand in a category by itself, and we can not look upon it as a form of energy. It is true that many brave attempts have been made to associate the two. Sensations can be measured as to intensity, and the intensity of a sensation is to a certain extent dependent upon the intensity of the stimulus exciting it. The mental sensation is undoubtedly excited by the physical wave of nervous impulse. In the growth of the individual the development of its mental powers are found to be parallel to the development of its nerves and brain—a fact which, of course, proves that mental power is dependent upon brain structure. Further, it is found that certain visible changes occur in certain parts of the brain—the brain cells—when they are excited into mental activity. Such series of facts point to an association between the mental side of sensations and physical structure of the machine. But they do not prove any correlation between them. The unlikeness of mental and physical phenomena is so absolute that we must hesitate about drawing any connection between them. It is impossible to conceive the mental side of a sensation as a form of wave motion. If, further, we take into consideration the other phenomena associated with the nervous system, the more distinctly mental processes, we have absolutely no data for any comparison. We can not imagine thought measured by units, and until we can conceive of such measurement we can get no meaning from any attempt to find a correlation between mental and physical phenomena. It is true that certain psychologists have tried to build up a conception of the physical nature of mind; but their attempts have chiefly resulted in building up a conception of the physical nature of the brain, and then ignoring the radical chasm that exists between mind and matter. The possibility of describing a complex brain as growing parallel to the growth of a complex mind has been regarded as equivalent to proving their identity. All attempts in this direction thus far have simply ignored the fact that the stimulation of a nerve, a purely physical process, is not the same thing as a mental action. What the future may disclose it is hazardous to say, but at present the mental side of the living machine has not been included within the conception of the mechanical nature of the organism. |
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