344 The Unity of the Organism 



cyanogen (CN) 2 is said to have been the first discovered, and 

 of which the . unitedly-acting combinations of carbon and 

 hydrogen as methyl, CH 3 , affords some slight support for 

 our conception so far as the mere matter of chemically uni- 

 tary compoundedness is concerned. In so far, however, as 

 technical chemistry can be drawn upon for supporting our 

 hypothesis, it is the new, or physical chemistry, as has 

 been repeatedly stated, that is our main reliance. Unless I 

 am greatly deceived, the real inwardness of that great move- 

 ment in inorganic science is against the age-old conception of 

 the ultimate adequacy of atoms to explain inorganic na- 

 ture, almost as positively as the organismal conception is 

 against the ultimate adequacy of any constituent element 

 whatever, to explain organic nature. The surface energies, 

 for example, developed at contact faces and giving rise to 

 the phenomena of adsorption * appear to be not a whit less 

 real and ultimate energies than are any that can be attrib- 

 uted to atoms and molecules taken as such. And, be it no- 

 ticed, one of the most distinctive things about these areal and 

 massive energies is that they dominate atomic and molecular 

 energies to a certain extent. This is just what the now uni- 

 versally recognized principle of "mass action" is in so far as 

 such action has been studied enough to make possible its for- 

 mulation into law ; that is enough to learn how it influences 

 velocity and quantity of chemical change. But would any 

 careful physicist or chemist pretend to know to a certainty 

 that such action is restricted to influence of that sort? Surely 

 not. Are we certain for instance that it can not under any 



* Adsorption is the loading- of the surface of a solid body immersed in 

 a solution, with the dissolved substance. Thus it is by adsorption that 

 charcoal takes the coloring matter out of a colored solution. The action 

 results from the facts that there is surface tension at the interfaces be- 

 tween the charcoal and the liquid, and that this tension is lessened by 

 the presence of the dissolved color-substance in the liquid. The sub- 

 stance then moves to the place of lessened tension and concentrates on 

 the surface of the solid. 32 The principle has very wide application in 

 nature, particularly in organic nature, where colloidal substances and 

 water are in contact so extensively. 



