ever proposed in natural philosophy, and the theory least encumbered with hypotheses. It reduces all particular laws to two fundamental principles—that of the conservation of energy, which contains the principles of Galileo and Descartes, of Newton, of Lavoisier, Joule's law, Hess's law, and Berthelot's principle of the initial and final states; and also Carnot's principle, from which are deduced the laws of physico-chemical and chemical equilibrium. These two principles therefore sum up the whole of natural science. They express the necessary relation of all the phenomena of the universe, their uninterrupted gentic connection, and their continuity.
A priori there would be little likelihood that a doctrine, so universal and so thoroughly verified in the physical world, could be restricted, and thus be useless to the living world. Such a supposition would be contrary to the scientific method, which always tends to the generalization and the explanation of elementary laws. The human mind has always proceeded thus: it has applied to the unknown order of living phenomena the most general laws of contemporary physics.
This application has been found legitimate, and has been justified by experiment whenever it has been a question of the laws or of the really fundamental or elementary conditions of phenomena. It has, on the other hand, however, been unfortunate when it has stopped short of secondary characteristics. When we now concede the subjection of living beings to these general laws of energetics, we are following a traditional method. There is no doubt that this application is legitimate, and that experiment will justify it a posteriori.
