the world.

==Significance of the New Biological Problems==--It is further evident
that the answers to these questions will have a significance reaching
beyond the domain of biology proper and affecting the fundamental
philosophy of nature. The answer will determine whether or not we can
accept in entirety the doctrines of the conservation of energy and
evolution. Plainly if it should be found that the energy of animate
nature was not correlated with other forms of energy, this would demand
either a rejection or a complete modification of our doctrine of the
conservation of energy. If an animal can create any energy within
itself, or can destroy any energy, we can no longer regard the amount of
energy of the universe as constant. Even if that subtile form of force
which we call nervous energy should prove to be uncorrelated with other
forms of energy, the idea of the conservation of energy must be changed.
It is even possible that we must insist that the still more subtile form
of force, mental force, must be brought within the scope of this great
law in order that it be implicitly accepted. This law has proved itself
strictly applicable to the inanimate world, and has then thrust upon us
the various questions in regard to vital force, and we must recognize
that the real significance of this great law must rest upon the
possibility of its application to vital phenomena.

No less intimate is the relation of these problems to the doctrine of
evolution. Evolution tries to account for each moment in the history of
the world as the result of the conditions of the moment before. Such a
theory loses its meaning unless it can be shown that natural forces are
sufficient to account for living phenomena. If the supernatural must be
brought in here and there to account for living phenomena, then
evolution ceases to have much meaning. It is undoubtedly a fact that the