Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 4.djvu/179

Rh We easily see also why the animal activity of carnivora is greater than that of herbivora, for the amount of force necessary for the assimilation of their albuminoid food is small, and therefore a larger amount is left over for animal activity. Their food is already on plane No. 4; assimilation, therefore, is little more than a shifting on the plane No. 4 from a liquid to a solid condition—from liquid albuminoid of the blood to solid albuminoid of the tissues.

We see also why the internal activity of plants may conceivably be only of one kind; for, drawing their force from the sun, tissue-making is not necessarily dependent on tissue-decay. While, on the other hand, the internal activity of animals must be of two kinds, decay and repair; for animals always draw a portion of their force, and starving animals the whole of their force, from decaying tissue.

13. There are several general thoughts suggested by this subject, which I wish to present in conclusion:

a. We have said there are four planes of matter raised one above the other: 1. Elements; 2. Chemical compounds; 3. Vegetables; 4. Animals. Now, there are also four planes of force similarly related to each other, viz., physical force, chemical force, vitality, and will.

On the first plane of matter operates physical force only; for chemical force immediately raises matter into the second plane. On the second plane operates, in addition to physical, also chemical force. On the third plane operates, in addition to physical and chemical, also vital force. On the fourth plane, in addition to physical, chemical, and vital, also the force characteristic of animals, viz., will. With each elevation there is a peculiar force added to the already existing, and a peculiar group of phenomena is the result. As matter only rises step by step from plane to plane, and never two steps at a time, so also force, in its transformation into higher forms of force, rises only step by step. Physical force does not become vital except through chemical force, and chemical force does not become will except through vital force.

Again, we have compared the various grades of matter, not to a gradually rising inclined plane, but to successive planes raised one above the other. There are, no doubt, some intermediate conditions; but, as a broad, general fact, the changes from plane to plane are sudden. Now, the same is true also of the forces operating on these planes—of the different grades of force, and their corresponding groups of phenomena. The change from one grade to another, as