Showing 11 results

43 Norroy Road, Putney, S.W. - Wants to know 'whether calculations can be made bearing upon the enormous difference between the entropies of organic mechanic systems (the plant and animal kingdoms), and naturally formed inorganic systems' or expressed another way, wants 'to get at some calculations showing how organic mechanical systems utilize quantities of energy which are inevitably permitted to dissipate in naturally formed inorganic systems'. Addressed to 'H. Mordie, Esq': presumably a misreading for [Helen] Moodie, who must have replied on Onslow's behalf to the advert in the Athenaeum mentioned by Donovan.

Found with correspondence between Huia Onslow and J. Donovan, and probably relates to Onslow's attempts to answer Donovan's queries.

Includes headings 'Determination of H𝑥', 'Methods of determining H', 'Methods of determining quantities in (2)', 'The Human body as a Heat Engine per H', 'Balance Sheet', 'The efficiency of a machine as a heat engine per hour'.

The Elms, Avenue Road, N.W. - Has received Donovan's letter of 19 July. Does not know whether Donovan wishes to 'investigate the intra-molecular action of living tissue... - the dynamics of Metabolism and Electrolysis in fact - or... treat the organism as a whole, before proceeding to analytical work. Quotes from J. [Arthur] Thomson (Hibbert Journal, Oct 1911), and J. W. Jenkinson on 'Vitalism'.

7 Richmond Terrace, Whitehall, S.W. - Is sorry not to have answered Donovan's letter of 1st Aug before, but has been away on holiday. Fears is not yet able to assist Donovan, 'either experimentally, or by a priori or mathematical methods'. Seems to him to be two methods of approach possible, 'the one philosophical, based on the sense data derived from the empirical science of psychology, and the other the analytical or quantitative method, which must resort to Physics and Chemistry etc....'

7 Richmond Terrace, Whitehall, S.W. - Thanks Donovan for his letter of the 5th; Donovan's 'suspicion of the 2nd Law of Thermo-dynamics seems to be a growing one in several quarters; at least with regard to its universal if not its particular application'; mentions Bickerton's 'Theory of Impact' and Steinmetz's article 'The Death of Energy'.

Goes on to discuss a problem 'which, if you have not seen it, I owe to Mr. Pocock. It is based on the hypothesis of Psycho-neural Parallelism, or, as Huxley says, on the supposition that every Psychosis is correlated to a Neurosis'. Goes on to discuss memory and the 'quantity of neural energy' expended in learning.

Incomplete?