How did Helmholtz apply the principle of conservation of energy to living organisms?
Helmholtz obtained his medical degree at the 21 years of age and then was admitted in the army. In the army, he was able to build a small scale of laboratory and continue his early research by focusing metabolic processes in the frog. He postulated that an organism requires the consumption of oxygen and food that accounts for the total expenditure of energy.
Thus, Helmholtz was able to carry out the tremendous concept of principle that was known as the principle of conservation of energy applied to living organisms. According to this principle, energy can neither be created nor destroyed in a system but it can be transformed from one form of energy into another form of energy. It had also been previously applied to physical phenomenon.
When this principle was applied to living organisms, it was brought in accordance with the materialistic type of philosophy that brings chemistry, physics and physiology come closer together. In the year 1847, Helmholtz published a paper titled “The Conservation of Force” that was influenced by the peoples during their tenure in the army.