ng the supplies, and to this obedience to a law of
progressive transfer of energy we owe the vast stores of energy
now accumulated

[1] Claus, _Zoology_, p. 157

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in our coal fields. And when, further, we reflect that this store
of energy had long since been dissipated into space but for the
intervention of the organism, we see definitely another factor in
organic transfer of energy--a factor acting conservatively of
energy, or antagonistically to dissipation.

The tendency of organized nature in the presence of unlimited
supplies is to "run riot." This seems so universal a relation,
that we are safe in seeing here cause and effect, and in drawing
our conclusions as to the attitude of the organism towards
available energy. New species, when they come on the field of
geological history, armed with fresh adaptations, irresistible
till the slow defences of the subjected organisms are completed,
attain enormous sizes under the stimulus of abundant supply, till
finally, the environment, living and dead, reacts upon them with
restraining influence. The exuberance of the organism in presence
of energy is often so abundant as to lead by deprivation to its
self-destruction. Thus the growth of bacteria is often controlled
by their own waste products. A moment's consideration shows that
such progressive activity denotes an accelerative attitude on the
part of the organism towards the transfer of energy into the
organic material system. Finally, we are conscious in ourselves
how, by use, our faculties are developed; and it is apparent that
all such progressive developments must rest on actions which
respond to supplies with fresh demands. Possibly in the present
and ever-

70

increasing consumption of inanimate power by civilised races, we
see revealed the dynamic attitude of the organism working through
thought-processes.

Whether this be so or not, we find generally in organised nature
causes at work which in some way lead to a progressive transfer
of energy into the organic system. And we notice, too, that all
is not spent, but both immediately in the growth of the
individual, and ultimately in the multiplication of the species,
there are actions associated with vitality which retard the
dissipation of energy. We proceed to state the dynamical
principles involved in these manifestations, which appear
characteristic of the organism, as follows:--

_The transfer of energy into any animate material system is
atte