THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE 199 



is, as an average state; but it is certain that to develop the hypo- 

 thesis we need what has not, so far as I know, yet been begun 

 — namely, a kinetic theory of those intramolecular relations of 

 atoms which are statically expressed by the geometrical methods 

 of stereo-chemistry. The living cell, like a gas engine at work, is 

 a chemical vortex, and there is no hope of analysing the motions 

 of its parts so long as we are limited to statical methods. 



In the history of the study of heredity there is a note of 

 tragedy. In the early days of last century Lamarck began the 

 revolt against the dogma of the immutability of species, which 

 culminated in 1859 m the publication of The Origin of Species. 

 Between Lamarck and Darwin, however, stand a scanty band 

 of men forgotten by all but a few specialists, who strove by 

 experiments in cross-fertilisation to pierce the mystery of 

 heredity. Amongst them, and the last of the line, was a monk 

 of the Abbey of Briinn, one Gregor Mendel, who in 1865 

 communicated to the Briinn Natural History Society the results 

 of eight years devoted to experiments with peas, under the 

 modest title of Experiments in Plant Hybridisation. 



The fate of Darwin's work is known to every one : how " it 

 was considered a decidedly dangerous book by old ladies of 

 both sexes," and how, "overflowing the narrow bounds of scien- 

 tific circles, it divided with Italy and the Volunteers the atten- 

 tion of general society." The fate of Father Mendel's work was 

 different. For the rest of the century it lay completely forgotten 

 and buried in the annals of the little local society. But when 

 it was rediscovered in 1900 by Professor de Vries, of Amsterdam, 

 it was at once realised by the very few competent to judge that 

 the pursuit of a hobby in the abbey garden had led to a theory 

 of the nature and workings of heredity so clear and complete 

 as to leave to others only the application of principles and the 

 amplification of details. 



To find an achievement parallel to Mendel's, in the difficulty 

 of the problem attacked and the all-embracing nature of the 

 solution reached, one has to turn to Willard Gibbs's clean sweep 

 of the domain of chemical equilibrium. But the author of the 

 Phase Rule lived to see the work rediscovered — again by a 

 Professor of the University of Amsterdam — and become the 

 inspiration of a cloud of workers in all lands. The Mendelian 

 laws of heredity, established twenty years earlier, are only now 

 beginning to bear fruit, twenty years after Mendel's death. 



