MAN IS A SOUL CLAD IN AIR, A SPIRIT IN AN ELECTRIC ORGANISM
My claim that man is an electric organism is confirmed by Professor Loeb
and Dr. Mathews in their recent experiments at the Chicago University.
"Electrical charges in the atoms of the bodily tissue are responsible
for all the active phenomena of life. In other words, electricity is the
basis of life." This is the sweeping conclusion with which Dr. Jacques
Loeb amazed the physiologists gathered in their last annual meeting at
the Chicago University.
Hitherto it has been taken for granted by men of science that the food
we eat nourishes us by furnishing the tissues and muscles of the body
with thermo or heat energy. This, according to Professor Loeb, is
totally wrong. Instead of the food furnishing the muscle with heat
energy, it supplies electrical energy, which, after being converted into
mechanical energy, is responsible for all the muscular contractions and
organic processes of living organisms.
He has arrived at this conclusion after many years of intricate and
difficult experiments along the line of reproduction of animals, of
determining the effect of salt on the heart-beat and its rythmic motion,
and on other muscles, and of the destructive processes at work in the
eggs of simple unicellar animals. They have been the means of
determining the answer to the one great question, "What is life?" and he
regards all his previous discoveries subsidiary to this one. He received
his first hint of this new theory of life through the fact that
electricity is able to affect protoplasm in a more universal and
effective way than any other form of stimulus. And he drew the inference
that if electricity is able to affect protoplasm in the form of
currents, it ought to do so in the form of ions, which is an
electrically charged atom or group of atoms.
In experimenting to determine the toxic and antitoxic of ions on
protoplasm, which is the basic substance of all physical life, he
discovered that any one salt will act as a poison on the eggs of a sea
urchin, but by adding one or more, or certain other salts, he found it
was able to counteract the effects of this toxic effect. From which he
concluded that the toxic and antitoxic effect of the salts were due to
the manner in which its atoms are electrically charged.
He found that when a salt whose atoms are positively charged come in
contact with the eggs of the sea urchin, they interfered with the life
processes, while salts whose atoms were negatively charged stimulate
contraction; and the presence of both positively and negatively charged
atoms were necessary, and the phenomena of life is due to the play
between the different charges of electricity in the molecules. The
energy of foodstuffs and motions of the heart and other muscles of the
body are not due to the production of heat, but to the chemical energy
in electrically charged molecules.
He says: "A part of the chemical energy of foodstuffs is transformed
into electric energy, which gives energy to the body. In one experiment
I put a jelly-fish in contact with a solution of electrically charged
substances, and it immediately responded by muscular contraction. I then
put it in a substance that was a non-conductor and there was no
response. In this way I concluded it was the electric charges which
effected the muscular contraction, that a pure salt always acts as a
poison to the egg, and in order not to have toxic effects it is
necessary that the positive and negative electric charges should easily
balance. A muscle is stimulated by electro-negatively charged particles,
and prevented from contracting by electro-positively charged particles.
"I have experimented with eggs of different low forms of animal life,
with single protoplasmic cells, and with muscles. Professor Mathews has
shown that my results hold true for nerves. I took the eggs of the
fundulus and found that after they were fertilized they will develop in
sea water.
"In a sodium-chloride solution I found they will not develop, but by
adding a trace of calcium as many eggs will develop as in the sea water.
This is due to the electrically charged atoms of the calcium. Artificial
parthenogenesis, or life artificially produced, has been of interest
only as it leads me to learn how the electric charges of ions affect
life phenomena. You can bring about parthenogenesis only by positive
ions. I have come to two conclusions: First, rythmical contraction
occurs only in the presence of electrically charged substances. Second,
the efficiency of the charges depends upon the number of the charges or
the different ions. Professor Mathews has arrived at a third conclusion,
which is, that the negatively charged ions are those which stimulate,
and the positively charged ions are those which hinder contraction."
Dr. Loeb's paper created a sensation among the assembled scientists, as
also did that of Professor A. P. Mathews, on "The Nature of the Nerve
Stimulation and Alteration of Irritability." "Dr. Loeb's discoveries
have revolutionized the basic principles of physiology," declared one of
the scientists. "A greater part of the text-books on this subject will
have to be rewritten to accord with the results of these new views of
life phenomena." And Dr. G. N. Stewart, who presided at the meeting,
eulogized Dr. Loeb and said, "He has given us an insight into the
mechanics of living tissue which we never before have had. He has
brought forward the science of electro-physiology, which has hitherto
been despised, but which will now be accorded a respectable position."
Professor Garrett P. Serviss says: "This discovery of Dr. Loeb and Prof.
Mathews comes closer to the solution of the mystery of life than
physiologists have ever before been able to approach, and is so
fundamental and far reaching as to warrant the hope that we shall soon
know what are the conditions and the limits of man's power to prolong
his own life.
"The whole foundation of physiology and medicine may be reconstructed,
and we may find that we possess a control over the phenomena of life
more masterful than anybody has yet dared to dream. Briefly, it has been
discovered that our nerves consist of what is called a colloidal
solution--that is, matter resembling gelatin held in solution in water
before it is jellied, and these colloidal particles in the nerves carry
charges of positive electricity. When the nerve particles pass from the
colloidal condition into the state of gelation, or become jellied, the
nerve experiences a stimulation or becomes active. This is produced by
the action of atoms or ions bearing charges of negative electricity.
"This explains the action of certain chemical substances when introduced
into the human body, some of which tend to quiet the nerves and others
to excite them. The nerve-quieting ions are those that bear charges of
positive electricity, such as atoms of sodium, potassium, calcium and
hydrogen, and tend to keep the colloidal particles of the nerves in a
state of solution, so that the nerves remain inactive. The
nerve-stimulating ions are atoms of such substances as fluorine and
chlorine, which carry charges of negative electricity and cause the
nerve particles to coalesce or become jellied, in which condition the
nerve is active, the degree of activity depending upon the intensity of
the stimulation. Death appears to be the result of the stagnation of the
nerves, and this discovery may enable us to oppose the process that ends
in death."
This throws a flood of light on other obscure problems, and offers an
explanation of the effect of anaesthetics upon the human body. Anything
that tends to keep the nerve particles in a state of solution quiets the
nerves. Now, nerve particles are largely composed of fat, and
anaesthetics dissolve fat. Hence anaesthetics produce the effect of
positively electrified ions, preventing the nerve particles from
coalescing and thus quiets the nerves. The action of whiskey in
arresting the progress of snake poison is explained. The alcohol
counteracts the coagulating tendency and keeps the nerves in a colloidal
condition. It explains many other familiar facts, as why heat tends to
quiet the nerves, and that chemical stimulation is identical with
electrical stimulation, and solves the long standing puzzle of muscular
contractility.
Dr. H. Preston Pratt, an eminent electro-therapeutic expert, says: "Dr.
Loeb's experiments have demonstrated that _electricity is life_--that
the entire human organism is controlled by electrical forces. The
twentieth century will prove electricity and not salt is the real
life-giving principle.
"If this force is taken away, life ends, and, in the same manner, if
this force is supplied the result is the immediate stimulation of the
organic life.
"The necessary elements of life are taken into the body through the air
and food, and the entrance of the essential elements into the blood sets
the human battery into operation, and it continues to operate as long as
the electrical forces are supplied to the blood. _The human body is of
elements the same as a magnet and is built of smaller magnets or
molecules._" This I have contended for many years. He continued: "To
show the connection between human life and electricity, take an ordinary
battery of chloride of ammonia or salammoniac and study its workings.
You will see that by the introduction of the element zinc the electrical
current is found. The zinc is of positive polarity and so is the
ammonia, while the chloride is electro-negative.
"The electro-positive zinc has greater electric affinity for the
chlorine than the ammonia has, and consequently the ammonia is driven
off and combined with chlorine, forming chloride of zinc. The result is
the difference of an electric pull between the elements.
"All admit that the force of elements forms a part of the anatomic
structure, and there must be electricity. When oxygen is taken into a
body it excites the elements in the same manner as the negative chlorine
attacks the zinc in the battery. The electrical circuit of the body is
the circulating blood, and when the oxygen and the nitrogen are taken in
through the lungs the electro-negative ions go in one direction. Sulphur
and oxygen are electro-negative and the other elements of the blood are
electro-positive; and consequently, when the nitrogen and oxygen of the
air attack the blood through the medium of the air cells, we find that
oxygen and sulphur pass in one direction, while the other elements which
are electro-positive pass in the opposite direction. This action is
electrolytic the same as if we apply a battery to the human body."
All this accords with my theory of electrical creation, and proves, as I
have contended for many years, that man's body as well as the universe
is an electric organism.
In my book "The New Cosmogony," published about five years previous to
these discoveries, I laid down the broad proposition that nature or the
Creator has never made but one pattern or type of a thing that exists,
and that is the electro-magnetic. That suns and worlds, man and all
animal and vegetable organisms, are electro-magnets. That electricity
was physical life, and digestion and assimilation of food were purely
electrical processes; while the five senses--seeing, hearing, tasting,
smelling and feeling--were all electrical manifestations, seeing and
hearing being a form of wireless telegraphy.
That the electric combination of positive and negative atoms weaves the
visible structure that envelops the soul. The electric elements from the
lungs and stomach enter into the blood, and set the human battery in
organic operation and create and continue human life. Thus the beginning
of life is an electric process, and the source of life is augmented and
continued by absorbing electric energy from the air we breath, from the
food we eat and water we drink, and not by the so-called thermal or heat
digestive process, but in the same way as we extract electricity from
coal and wood--by a species of electric transformation or combustion,
like feeding a flame from the oxygen of the atmosphere.
The body is not only an electric machine or organism, but the exercise
of every function is an electric process. And the derangement of any
function, which we call sickness or disease, is an electric derangement.
Prof. Loeb and Dr. Mathews have shown how the body is woven of positive
and negative atoms.
Prof. Lucian I. Blake, of the Kansas University, in his lecture, "Atoms
and Their Electric Charges," shows how medicine affects the human body
and how life could be started in an unfertilized egg by inserting an
electric current. This was done by placing the white of the egg in a
vessel containing salt, calcium and water, and turning an electric
current into it. Life in this way can be raised to the fourth stage, he
says.
Another interesting experiment was a comparison of the effect of
electrical charges on the ferments of human blood, yeast, plant and
platinum. The ferments mixed with water were placed in separate vessels,
when the ions of each began to move about, causing bubbles to go to the
top of the vessels. Ether was placed in the different vessels, and then
a few drops of hydrocyanic acid, a deadly poison, were added. The ether,
by having an opposite electrical effect to that of the acid, neutralized
its effect.
So, in the case of all poisons, if it be known whether the electrical
effect is negative or positive to that of the blood ions, an ion
producing an opposite electrical effect will counteract the poison.
Prof. Blake says: "The reason ether prevents the pain of operations is
because it stops the coagulation of the nerves. All atoms of matter are
charged with electricity. All vital actions are always connected with
electricity. All drug effects are brought about by electrical charges
made with the meetings of the ions in the blood and those in the
medicine."
How strongly does Prof. Blake sustain my theory when he says, "All atoms
of matter are charged with electricity. All vital actions are always
connected with electricity." He also shows how medicines affect the
human body, how antidotes neutralize poison, why stimulants arouse
electrical energy, and how narcotics stupify and deaden it.
Electricity, I contend, is the active, energetic and all-pervading
ultimate force in nature, controlled by the still more refined and
ultimate spiritual force. It is the medium and ever-active agent in
evoking all visible forms and substances; the medium which produces all
affinities and repulsions in matter, gyrating from the lowest to the
highest elements and from globe to globe, and constitutes the invisible
controlling element whose results are known as laws. Electricity is the
guardian and executive of the invisible laws of nature. It is the
suspension bridge spanning the darkness and chaos of space between suns
and worlds.
Man is the product of the perfect unfolding of nature's invisible
electric laws, and aggregate atomic elements; and unites within himself
all the elements and forces of the combined and harmonious universe. He
is an epitome of the universe and an atom of deity. His form, like all
visible forms, is only the temporal combination of material substances
woven by invisible electric force out of invisible ether. The thoughts
of man's mind are the governing force of his organism. The thoughts of
the Great Creative Mind constitute the laws of nature and the
controlling force in the electric organism of the universe. Man is a
Soul clad in air.
The results of these thoughts of deity are the vast expanse of the
universe and varied forms of animate and inanimate nature; just as the
result of man's thoughts are the varied structures, temples and works of
art, constructed by him upon the surface of the earth. All things man
creates are the representatives of his thought, the outward expression
of his soul. He creates nothing but what is a living evidence of his
previous thought or concept. All things tangible are the living evidence
of a soul--the invisible soul or spirit of deity and man. All material
things are the forms of God's thoughts or man's thoughts, which is the
interior cause, producing tangible effects. For the natural world is the
spiritual unfoldment made manifest in matter by electric energy. But I
must not consume space by a repetition of these things. What the world
wants is the truth, and we are discovering it at a very rapid rate. And
if these theories are not the truth they are nearer to it than
nine-tenths of the accepted truths of science.
The ancients knew little about their bodies, or the mysterious
operations of physical life. They looked only at effects and the outside
of things, and knew nothing of the invisible forces of nature. They
regarded all the mysteries they could not understand as supernatural, as
outside of nature, and produced by demons, wizards, necromancers, or
their imaginary gods.
Their knowledge of their bodies was as limited as their knowledge of the
universe, which they regarded as a little span of flat earth and bending
sky; and they relied on incantations and prayers to restore the sick,
and on the flight of birds and the entrails of beasts to reveal the
mysteries of the future. They believed in obsession and deemed all sick,
insane and diseased persons as possessed of demon spirits or devils, and
their restoration to health or their right minds was called "the casting
out of devils."
The ancients also believed every evil propensity was the prompting of
some demon spirit that possessed the human body, and that there was as
many devils as there were evil propensities. Mary Magdalene was
possessed of seven devils, and the man who had more evil propensities
than they could enumerate was said to possess a "legion of devils."
But the world is fast outgrowing the ignorance and superstition of the
past and this is a fortunate and happy age in which to live. This is
pre-eminently the age of electricity--of mind and invisible forces--as
the past century was an age of matter. The whole world is feeling the
electric thrill of a new life. New voices call us, new inspirations are
in the air, new thoughts crowd upon the thinking mind. The reasoning
soul catches whispers from the stars and celestial benedictions from the
radiance of the sun. Man is a heaven-bound spirit in an electric body
woven of dust and air, of infinite ether and eternal atoms, sifted
through boundless space, and tossed from suns to worlds; and he is
climbing to loftier spiritual heights and a diviner atmosphere.
The great men of the past had false ideals. They were the ambitious
conquerors, who despoiled their own race and deluged the world in blood.
Their thrones were built on pyramids of human skulls swimming in a sea
of human blood and tears. Their triumphal march was heralded by the
clanking chains of miserable captives, and the wailing cries of widows
and orphans. For many ages human slavery, grinding poverty and abject
misery were the common heritage of the despoiled masses who lived in
hovels, were made food for cannon, or were sold into bondage for debt,
while a few fortunate rulers reveled in luxury and swayed despotic
power. Up to the recent centuries the chief vocations of men were the
soldier and the priest--the one for slaughter and the other to appease
the gods.
But the evolving ages have changed the ideals of the world, and liberty
and justice are no longer a dream; but "Peace hath her victories no less
renowned than war." The time is near at hand when the ideals of men will
be so exalted and their consciences so alive to the demands of love and
justice that no man of wealth can sleep in his luxurious home or feast
on choice viands and know of any human creature or dumb animal suffering
from cold and want without first ministering to their needs. This is the
law of love written in every enlightened heart, as it is written in the
books of the New Testament.
Men are beginning to learn that the greatest thing in this world is not
wealth, with its pomp and pride, though it may bring a thousand
comforts. It is not religion, with its glorious dreams crowned with the
promised beatitudes of heaven, though martyred saints and prophets have
given their lives to confirm its faith and hopes. It is not literature,
with its gems of thought and flowers of divine fancy, which have charmed
and inspired mankind from the days of Homer to those of Shakespeare and
Tennyson. It is not science, with "learning's ample page," though she
has transformed the earth, and produced a Gallileo and a Newton. It is
not the wonders of mechanical genius, though we stand in awe before
their marvels of grandeur and utility. It is not the beauty of inspiring
art that lifts us to the altitudes of aesthetic joy. These are but the
ideals and manifestations of that which is higher and greater, which is
written in the soul of man as in a book.
Man is the greatest thing in this world--ah! in the universe next to
Deity. He is the offspring of Omnipotence, the Child of the Sun, the
inheritor of the universe. All suns and worlds, all life and space are
the playgrounds of his activities. He shall dwell in the home of Deity,
stroll in the garden of the gods, bask in the radiance of central suns,
recline on the daffodil meadows and wander in the elysian fields of
paradise. He is at home in the measureless expanse of all ether and
space.
Wherever an atom vibrates or an electric current thrills, there he is
the monarch of spiritual power, and can command the electric force that
tosses suns upon their course and plays football with the stars. Man is
no worm of the dust, he is the darling of the skies, the ruler of suns,
the cherubim of celestial destiny clad in terrestrial ether and winged
with the spiritual power of Omnipotence.
Who nobly does must nobly think,
The soul that soars can never sink,
And man's a strange connecting link
Between frail dust and Deity.