supplies. Now, regarded as a source of energy, such supplies, if far down, will be less effective, for we have to deduct the amount of energy requisite in order to bring them to the surface. The result is that we must contemplate a time, however far distant, when our supplies of coal will be exhausted, and we shall be compelled to resort to other sources of energy.
Food.
199. The energy of food is analogous to that of fuel, and serves similar purposes. For just as fuel may be used either for producing heat or for doing work, so food has a twofold office to perform. In the first place, by its gradual oxidation, it keeps up the temperature of the body; and in the next place it is used as a source of energy, on which to draw for the performance of work. Thus a man or a horse that works a great deal requires to eat more food than if he does not work at all Thus, also, a prisoner condemned to hard labour requires a better diet than one who does not work, and a soldier during the fatigues of war finds it necessary to eat more than during a time of peace.
Our food may be either of animal or vegetable origin—if it be the latter, it is immediately derived, like fuel, from the energy of the sun's rays; but if it be the former, the only difference is that it has passed through the body of an animal before coming to us: the animal has eaten grass, and we have eaten the animal.
