254 WHAT 18 LIFE 



the realm of the inorganic — yield fundamental con- 

 cepts ? 



Soddy teaches: "The chemical analysis of matter 

 is, even within its own province, superficial rather 

 than ultimate."^ 



In order to get at the inner constitution of matter, 

 "ordinary" inorganic matter, physics has devised, 

 has had to devise, methods a million million times 

 more sensitive than ordinary chemical analysis. How 

 can one expect the secret of living matter to reveal itself 

 to methods too clumsy for the inorganic? One cannot 

 expect to get results by using a tool comparable to a 

 mile measure when what is needed is one correspond- 

 ing to an inch. Therefore in biological inquiry, even 

 when physical chemistry points out and describes 

 causes and effects, such as identifying certain changes 

 as of rate of action, with change of electrical sign of 

 a specific ion, the demand for a further reduction of 

 the terms cannot be suppressed. The terms to which 

 the atom and ion and their activities must be reduced 

 of course are the terms of atomic physics. This is 

 obvious, since the chemical elements which are 

 present in organisms and involved in life-processes, 

 are like the same chemical elements found in the 

 inorganic, fundamental conceptions of which are 

 supplied by atomic physics. Jacques Loeb, whose 



^ Nature, July 19, 1917. 



