EXPERIMENTS NOW RECORDED 93 



has published a list comprising about one hundred 

 colloids of a mineral order. 1 



Still, in default of anything like an explanation 

 some few hints may be given tending to diminish 

 the mystery attaching to the de novo origin of 

 living matter. 



In the first place, it would seern so far as we 

 know at present to occur only in solutions con- 

 taining colloidal compounds. And these, as Gra- 

 ham showed, are characterised by their mutability. 2 



Their existence [he said] is a continued metas- 

 tasis . . . the colloidal is, in fact, a dynamical state 

 of matter, the crystalloid being the statical condition. 

 The colloid possesses energeia. It may be looked upon 

 as the probable primary source of the force appear- 

 ing in the phenomena of vitality. To the gradual 

 manner in which colloidal changes take place (for 

 they always demand time as an element) may the 

 characteristic protraction of chemico-organic changes 

 also be referred. 



This, then, is the medium in which changes of 

 a fermentative order seem to be brought about 

 under the long-continued influence of suitable 

 temperatures or that of sunlight. The changes 



1 Studien zur Lehre von den Kolloiden Losungen (Nova Acta 

 Reg. Soc. Science, Upsala) (iv.), 2, 1907. 



2 Phil. Trans., 1861, p. 183. 



