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; ActivityConn, H. W. (Herbert William)
Philosophy
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
Conn, H. W. (Herbert William)
Biology
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.
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