244 SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE ORGANISM 



In physics and chemistry no perfect rational systems 

 have been established hitherto, but there are many systems 

 approaching the ideal type in different departments of these 

 sciences. The chemical type of the rnonohydric saturated 

 alcohols, for instance, is given by the formula C n H 2n+1 OH, 

 and in this formula we not only have an expression of the 

 law of composition which all possible alcohols are to follow, 

 but, since we know empirically the law of quantitative 

 relation between n and various physical properties, we also 

 possess in our formula a general statement with respect to 

 the totality of the properties of any primary alcohol that 

 may be discovered or prepared in the future. But chemistry 

 has still higher aims with regard to its systematics : all of 

 you know that the so-called " periodic law of the elements " 

 was the first step towards a principle that may some day 

 give account of the relation of all the physical and chemical 

 properties of any so-called element with its most important 

 constant, the atomic weight, and it seems to be reserved for 

 the present time to form a real fundamental system of the 

 " elements " on the basis of the periodic law by the aid of 

 the theory of electrons. Such a fundamental system of the 

 elements would teach us that there can only be so many 

 elements and no more, and only of such a kind. In 

 crystallography a similar end has been reached already by 

 means of certain hypothetic assumptions, and systematics 

 has here accounted for the limited number and fixed character 

 of the possible forms of crystalline symmetry. 



It is not difficult to understand the general logical type 

 of all rational systems, and logic indeed can discover it with- 

 out appealing to concrete sciences or to geometry. Kational 

 systematics is always possible whenever there exists any 



