CHAPTER VI.
THE POSITION OF LIFE.
211. We have hitherto confined ourselves almost entirely to a discussion of the laws of energy, as these affect inanimate matter, and have taken little or no account of the position of life. We have been content very much to remain spectators of the contest, apparently forgetful that we are at all concerned in the issue. But the conflict is not one which admits of on-lookers,—it is a universal conflict in which we must all take our share. It may not, therefore, be amiss if we endeavour to ascertain, as well as we can, our true position.
Twofold nature of Equilibrium.
212. One of our earliest mechanical lessons is on the twofold nature of equilibrium. We are told that this may be of two kinds, stable and unstable, and a very good illustration of these two kinds is furnished by an egg. Let us take a smooth level table, and place an egg upon it; we all know in what manner the egg will lie on the table. It will remain at rest, that is to say, it will be in equilibrium; and not only so, but it will be in stable equilibrium. To prove this, let us try to displace it with our finger, and we shall find that when we remove the pressure the egg will speedily return to its previous position, and will come to rest after one or two oscillations. Furthermore, it has required a sensible expenditure of energy to displace the egg. All this we express by saying that the egg is in stable equilibrium.
Mechanical Instability.
213. And now let us try to balance the egg upon its longer axis. Probably, a sufficient amount of care will enable us to achieve this also. But the operation is a difficult one, and requires great delicacy of touch, and even after we have succeeded we do not know how long our success may last. The slightest impulse from without, the merest breath of air, may be sufficient to overturn the egg, which is now most evidently in unstable equilibrium. If the egg be thus balanced at the very edge of the table, it is quite probable that in a few minutes it may topple over upon the floor; it is what we may call an even chance whether it will do so, or merely fall upon the table. Not that mere chance has anything to do with it, or that its movements are without a cause, but we mean that its movements are decided by some external impulse so exceedingly small as to be utterly beyond our powers of observation. In fact, before making the trial we have carefully removed everything like a current of air, or want of level, or external impulse of any kind, so that when the egg falls we are completely unable to assign the origin of the impulse that has caused it to do so.
214. Now, if the egg happens to fall over the table upon the floor, there is a somewhat considerable transmutation of energy; for the energy of position of the egg, due to the height which it occupied on the table, has all at once been changed into energy of motion, in the first place, and into heat in the second, when the egg comes into contact with the floor.
If, however, the egg happens to fall upon the table, the transmutation of energy is comparatively small.
It thus appears that it depends upon some external impulse, so infinitesimally small as to elude our observation, whether the egg shall fall upon the floor and give rise to a comparatively large transmutation of energy, or whether it shall fall upon the table and give rise to a transmutation comparatively small.
Chemical Instability.
215. We thus see that a body, or system, in unstable equilibrium may become subject to a very considerable transmutation of energy, arising out of a very small cause, or antecedent. In the case now mentioned, the force is that of gravitation, the arrangement being one of visible mechanical instability. But we may have a substance, or system, in which the force at work is not gravity, but chemical affinity, and the substance, or system, may, under certain peculiar conditions, become chemically unstable.
When a substance is chemically unstable, it means that the slightest impulse of any kind may determine a chemical change, just as in the case of the egg the slightest impulse from without occcasioned a mechanical displacement.
In fine, a substance, or system, chemically unstable bears a relation to chemical affinity somewhat similar to that which a mechanically unstable system bears to gravity. Gunpowder is a familiar instance of a chemically unstable substance. Here the slightest spark may prove the precursor of a sudden chemical change, accompanied by the instantaneous and violent generation of a vast volume of heated gas. The various explosive compounds, such as gun-cotton, nitro-glycerine, the fulminates, and many more, are all instances of structures which are chemically unstable.
Machines are of two kinds.
216. When we speak of a structure, or a machine, or a system, we simply mean a number of individual particles associated together in producing some definite result. Thus, the solar system, a timepiece, a rifle, are examples of inanimate machines; while an animal, a human being, an army, are examples of animated structures or machines. Now, such machines or structures are of two kinds, which differ from one another not only in the object sought, but also in the means of attaining that object.
217. In the first place, we have structures or machines in which systematic action is the object aimed at, and in which all the arrangements are of a conservative nature, the element of instability being avoided as much as possible. The solar system, a timepiece, a steam-engine at work, are examples of such machines, and the characteristic of all such is their calculability. Thus the skilled astronomer can tell, with the utmost precision, in what place the moon or the planet Venus will be found this time next year. Or again, the excellence of a timepiece consists in its various hands pointing accurately in a certain direction after a certain interval of time. In like manner we may safely count upon a steamship making so many knots an hour, at least while the outward conditions remain the same. In all these cases we make our calculations, and we are not deceived—the end sought is regularity of action, and the means employed is a stable arrangement of the forces of nature.
218. Now, the characteristics of the other class of machines are precisely the reverse.
Here the object aimed at is not a regular, but a sudden and violent transmutation of energy, while the means employed are unstable arrangements of natural forces. A rifle at full cock, with a delicate hair-trigger, is a very good instance of such a machine, where the slightest touch from without may bring about the explosion of the gunpowder, and the propulsion of the ball with a very great velocity. Now, such machines are eminently characterized by their incalculability.
219. To make our meaning clear, let us suppose that two sportsmen go out hunting together, each with a good rifle and a good pocket chronometer. After a hard day's work, the one turns to his companion and says:—"It is now six o'clock by my watch; we had better rest ourselves," upon which the other looks at his watch, and he would be very much surprised and exceedingly indignant with the maker, if he did not find it six o'clock also. Their chronometers are evidently in the same state, and have been doing the same thing; but what about their rifles? Given the condition of the one rifle, is it possible by any refinement of calculation to deduce that of the other? We feel at once that the bare supposition is ridiculous.
220. It is thus apparent that, as regards energy, structures are of two kinds. In one of these, the object sought is regularity of action, and the means employed, a stable arrangement of natural forces: while in the other, the end sought is freedom of action, and a sudden transmutation of energy, the means employed being an unstable arrangement of natural forces.
The one set of machines are characterized by their calculability—the other by their incalculability. The one set, when at work, are not easily put wrong, while the other set are characterized by great delicacy of construction.
An Animal is a delicately-constructed Machine.
221. But perhaps the reader may object to our use of the rifle as an illustration.
For although it is undoubtedly a delicately-constructed machine, yet a rifle does not represent the same surpassing delicacy as that, for instance, which characterizes an egg balanced on its longer axis. Even if at full cock, and with a hair trigger, we may be perfectly certain it will not go off of its own accord. Although its object is to produce a sudden and violent transmutation of energy, yet this requires to be preceded by the application of an amount of energy, however small, to the trigger, and if this be not spent upon the rifle, it will not go off. There is, no doubt, delicacy of construction, but this has not risen to the height of incalculability, and it is only when in the hands of the sportsman that it becomes a machine upon the condition of which we cannot calculate.
Now, in making this remark, we define the position of the sportsman himself in the Universe of Energy, The rifle is delicately constructed, but not surpassingly so; but sportsman and rifle, together, form a machine of surpassing delicacy, ergo the sportsman himself is such a machine. We thus begin to perceive that a human being, or indeed an animal of any kind, is in truth a machine of a delicacy that is practically infinite, the condition or motions of which we are utterly unable to predict.
In truth, is there not a transparent absurdity in the very thought that a man may become able to calculate his own movements, or even those of his fellow?
Life is like the Commander of an Army
222. Let us now introduce another analogy—let us suppose that a war is being carried on by a vast army, at the head of which there is a very great commander. Now, this commander knows too well to expose his person; in truth, he is never seen by any of his subordinates. He remains at work in a well-guarded room, from which telegraphic wires lead to the headquarters of the various divisions. He can thus, by means of these wires, transmit his orders to the generals of these divisions, and by the same means receive back information as to the condition of each.
Thus his headquarters become a centre, into which all information is poured, and out of which all commands are issued.
Now, that mysterious thing called life, about the nature of which we know so little, is probably not unlike such a commander. Life is not a bully, who swaggers out into the open universe, upsetting the laws of energy in all directions, but rather a consummate strategist, who, sitting in his secret chamber, before his wires, directs the movements of a great army.[1]
223. Let us next suppose that our imaginary army is in rapid march, and let us try to find out the cause of this movement. We find that, in the first place, orders to march have been issued to the troops under them by the commanders of each regiment. In the next place, we learn that staff officers, attached to the generals of the various divisions, have conveyed these orders to the regimental commanders; and, finally, we learn that the order to march has been telegraphed from headquarters to these various generals.
Descending now to ourselves, it is probably somewhere in the mysterious and well-guarded brain-chamber that the delicate directive touch is given which determines our movements. This chamber forms, as it were, the headquarters of the general in command, who is so well withdrawn as to be absolutely invisible to all his subordinates.
224. Joule, Carpenter, and Mayer were at an early period aware of the restrictions under which animals are placed by the laws of energy, and in virtue of which the power of an animal, as far as energy is concerned, is not creative, but only directive. It was seen that, in order to do work, an animal must be fed; and, even at a still earlier period, Count Rumford remarked that a ton of hay will be administered more economically by feeding a horse with it, and then getting work out of the horse, than by burning it as fuel in an engine.
225. In this chapter, the same line of thought has been carried out a little further. We have seen that life is associated with delicately-constructed machines, so that whenever a transmutation of energy is brought about by a living being, could we trace the event back, we should find that the physical antecedent was probably a much less transmutation, while again the antecedent of this would probably be found still less, and so on, as far as we could trace it.
226. But with all this, we do not pretend to have discovered the true nature of life itself, or even the true nature of its relation to the material universe.
What we have ventured is the assertion that, as far as we can judge, life is always associated with machinery of a certain kind, in virtue of which an extremely delicate directive touch is ultimately magnified into a very considerable transmutation of energy. Indeed, we can hardly imagine the freedom of motion implied in life to exist apart from machinery possessed of very great delicacy of construction.
In fine, we have not succeeded in solving the problem as to the true nature of life, but have only driven the difficulty into a borderland of thick darkness, into which the light of knowledge has not yet been able to penetrate.
Organized Tissues are subject to Decay.
227. We have thus learned two things, for, in the first place, we have learned that life is associated with delicacy of construction, and in the next (Art. 220), that delicacy of construction implies an unstable arrangement of natural forces. We have now to remark that the particular force which is thus used by living beings is chemical affinity. Our bodies are, in truth, examples of an unstable arrangement of chemical forces, and the materials which composed them, if not liable to sudden explosion, like fulminating powder, are yet pre-eminently the subjects of decay.
228. Now, this is more than a mere general statement; it is a truth that admits of degrees, and in virtue of which those parts of our bodies which have, during life, the noblest and most delicate office to perform, are the very first to perish when life is extinct.
"Oh! o'er the eye death most exerts his might,
And hurls the spirit from her throne of light;
Sinks those blue orbs in their long last eclipse,
But spares as yet the charm around the lips."
So speaks the poet, and we have here an aspect of things in which the lament of the poet becomes the true interpretation of nature.
Difference between Animals and Inanimate
Machines.
229. We are now able to recognize the difference between the relations to energy of a living being, such as man, and a machine, such as a steam-engine.
There are many points in common between the two. Both require to be fed, and in both there is the transmutation of the energy of chemical separation implied in fuel and food into that of heat and visible motion.
But while the one—the engine—requires for its maintenance only carbon, or some other variety of chemical separation, the other—the living being—demands to be supplied with organized tissue. In fact, that delicacy of construction which is so essential to our well-being, is not something which we can elaborate internally in our own frames—all that we can do is to appropriate and assimilate that which comes to us from without; it is already present in the food which we eat.
Ultimate Dependence of Life upon the Sun.
230. We have already (Art. 203) been led to recognize the sun as the ultimate material source of all the energy which we possess, and we must now regard him as the source likewise of all our delicacy of construction. It requires the energy of his high temperature rays so to wield and manipulate the powerful forces of chemical affinity; so to balance these various forces against each other, as to produce in the vegetable something which will afford our frames, not only energy, but also delicacy of construction.
Low temperature heat would be utterly unable to accomplish this; it consists of ethereal vibrations which are not sufficiently rapid, and of waves that are not sufficiently short, for the purpose of shaking asunder the constituents of compound molecules.
231. It thus appears that animals are, in more ways than one, pensioners upon the sun's bounty; and those instances, which at first sight appear to be exceptions, will, if studied sufficiently, only serve to confirm the rule.
Thus the recent researches of Dr. Carpenter and Professor Wyville Thomson have disclosed to us the existence of minute living beings in the deepest parts of the ocean, into which we may be almost sure no solar ray can penetrate. How, then, do these minute creatures obtain that energy and delicacy of construction without which they cannot live? in other words, how are they fed?
Now, the same naturalists who discovered the existence of these creatures, have recently furnished us with a very probable explanation of the mystery. They think it highly probable that the whole ocean contains in it organic matter to a very small but yet perceptible extent, forming, as they express it, a sort of diluted soup, which thus becomes the food of these minute creatures.
232. In conclusion, we are dependent upon the sun and centre of our system, not only for the mere energy of our frames, but also for our delicacy of construction—the future of our race depends upon the sun's future. But we have seen that the sun must have had a beginning, and that he will have an end.
We are thus induced to generalize still further, and regard, not only our own system, but the whole material universe when viewed with respect to serviceable energy, as essentially evanescent, and as embracing a succession of physical events which cannot go on for ever as they are.
But here at length we come to matters beyond our grasp; for physical science cannot inform us what must have been before the beginning, nor yet can if tell us what will take place after the end.
- ↑ See an article on "The Position of Life," by the author of this work, in conjunction with Mr. J. N. Lockyer, "Macmillan's Magazine," September, 1868; also a lecture on "The Recent Developments of Cosmical Physics," by the author of this work.