The essential nature and organisation of food energy and the application of the second principle of thermo-dynamics to food value and its active force / by M. Bircher-Benner ; translated by D. E. Hecht and E. F. Meyer.

  • Bircher-Benner, Max Oskar, 1867-1939.
Date:
1939
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The essential nature and organisation of food energy and the application of the second principle of thermo-dynamics to food value and its active force / by M. Bircher-Benner ; translated by D. E. Hecht and E. F. Meyer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Action \ and j- Reaction) <- Interaction —> ' Action and Reaction Functions of Functions of the Co-ordination, Functions of the capture, balance co-operation, compensa- the capture, storage and tion, acceleration, retardation of storage, and release of actions and reactions release of energy energy “ Since it is known that many actions and reactions of the organism—such as those of generalised and localised growth, of nutrition, of respiration—are co-ordinated with other actions and reactions through interaction, it is but a step to extend the principle and suppose that all actions and reactions are similarly co-ordinated; and that while there was an evolution of action and reaction, there was also a corresponding evolution of interaction, for without this the organism would not evolve har- moniously.” “ Evidence for such universality of the interaction principle has been accumulating rapidly of late, especially in experimental medicine and experimental physiology. ... It is the peculiar evolution and elaboration of the physical principle of interaction which distinguishes the living organism. “ All visible tissues, organs and structures are seen to be the more or less simple and elaborate agents of the different modes of energy. One after another special groups of tissues and organs are created and co-ordinated —organs for the capture of energy from the inorganic environment and from the life environment, organs for the storage of energy, organs for the transformation of energy from the potential state into the states of motion and heat. Other agents of control are evolved to bring about a harmonious balance between the various organs and tissues, in which energy is released, hastened or