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These phenomena occur only when the oxidation takes place in the living machine. Our problem is then to determine, if possible, what it is in the living machine that regulates the oxidations and other changes in such a way as to produce from them vital activities.
We shall presently show that yeast possesses the power of absorbing that gas and emitting carbonic acid, like ordinary fungi, that even oxygen may be reckoned amongst the number of food-stuffs that may be assimilated by this plant, and that this fixation of oxygen in yeast, as well as the oxidations resulting from it, have the most marked effect on the life of yeast, on the multiplication of its cells, and on their activity as ferments acting upon sugar, whether immediately or afterwards, apart from supplies of oxygen or air.
It should be noted that, in general, the changes occurring at the cathode are reductions, while those at the anode are oxidations. For analytical purposes, solutions of nitrates or sulphates of the metals are preferable to those of the chlorides, since liberated chlorine attacks the electrodes.
*The Source of Bodily Energy.*—As already indicated, the energy of the body is supplied through the food and the oxygen. Somewhat as the power of the steam engine is derived from the combustion of fuel in the furnaces, the energy of the body is supplied through the oxidations at the cells.
The bile throws out fat, therefore, to accelerate nutritive oxidations, the liver and nervous system must be acted upon, i.e., stimulated. Everything that tends to diminish the activity of the former, or depress the latter, must be avoided. Hence intellectual labor should be encouraged, or in lieu thereof, travel advised.
It is known, however, that the cells are the places where most of the oxidations of the body occur and that materials taking part in these oxidations must, at least, come in close contact with the protoplasm. Assimilation, then, is the last event in a series of processes by which oxygen, food materials, and cell protoplasm are brought into close and active relations.
Both of these substances express the result of oxidations going on in the body. The urea and uric acids represent the final result of the breaking down in the body of nitrogenous substances, of which albumen is the type. Unusual constituents of the urine are albumen, sugar, and bile.
In fact, the life of the tissues is dependent upon a continual succession of oxidations and deoxidations. When the blood leaves the tissues, it is poorer in oxygen, is burdened with carbon dioxid, and has had its color changed from bright scarlet to purple red. This is the change from the arterial to venous conditions which has been described in the preceding chapter.
The oxidations at the cells are, therefore, under such control that the quantity of kinetic energy supplied to the body as a whole, and to the different organs, is proportional to the work that is done. *Animal Heat and Motion.*—Most of the body’s energy is expended as heat in keeping warm. It is estimated that as much as five sixths of the whole amount is used in this way.
"All this time you continued to absorb an agent which directly acts for what by a paradox may be called fatal conservation of the tissues. Whether through its complexly combined nitrogen, carbon, or both, the drug has interposed itself between your very personal substance and those oxidations by which alone its life can be maintained. It has slowed the fires of your whole system.
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