Vries,
these things are self evident. If animals really progress, which is
doubtful because they are an older form of life than humans and they
have not shown any noticeable progress to the knowledge of man,
their progress is so small in comparison with man's that it may be
said, in mathematical terms, to be _negligible_ as an infinitesimal
of higher order.

10 It must be remembered here that our world is, first of all, a
dynamic conglomeration of matter and energy, which to-day, as well
as in the first period of primitive organic life, took and takes
different known and unknown forms. One of these forms of energy is
the chemical energy, with its tendency to combinations and
exchanges. Different elements act in different ways. The history of
the earth and its life is simply the history of different chemical
periods, with different transformations of energy. A strange fact is
to be noticed about nitrogen. Nitrogen chemically has an exceptional
inertness toward most other substances, but once it is a component
part of a substance, almost all of these combinations are a very
powerful source of energy, and all of them have a very strong effect
upon organic life. Nitric acid acts through oxidation, the
substances are burned up by the oxygen given off from the acid.
Nitric acid occurs in nature, in a combination called nitrates. From
the soil the nitrates pass into the plant. Nitrite of amyl acts upon
our organs in a most violent and spasmodic way. Nitrous oxide is the
so-called laughing gas.

Alkaloids are compounds of a vegetable origin, generally of complex
composition and capable of producing marked effects upon animals.
They all contain nitrogen. Explosives which are a chemical means of
storing tremendous amounts of energy, are mostly of some nitrogenous
compound. Albumen is an organic compound of great importance in
life, which, besides being the characteristic ingredient in the
white of an egg, abounds in the serum of the blood and forms an
important part of the muscles and brain. Albuminoids play the most
vital role in plant life and are an extensive class of organic
bodies found in plants and animals, as they are found to form the
chief constituents of blood, nerves. All albuminoids found in
animals are pr