The Making of a Soil 25 



Now all living creatures are essentially built up 

 of proteins and other carbon compounds in a colloi- 

 dal state, that is to say with ultra-miscroscopic par- 

 ticles and immiscible droplets in suspension or dis- 

 persion in a medium which, in the case of living 

 matter, is very watery. Only in that colloidal state 

 could materials have the pliancy and permeability 

 which are characteristic of organisms, and that 

 "energia" of which Thomas Graham wrote in 1861 

 that it "may be looked upon as the probably primary 

 source of the force appearing in the phenomena of 

 vitality." It is what we now call "surface energy." 

 Now there is a notable readiness on the part of com- 

 plex chemical substances to pass into this "dynamical 

 state," as Graham called it, and thus was life pre- 

 pared for. The argument runs thus : abundant pres- 

 ence of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen on the surface of 

 the young earth; the unique properties of "the Big 

 Three"; the tendency to form complex compounds 

 under suitable provocation ; the readiness of these to 

 form colloids, which are characteristically necessary 

 for the make-up and continuance of living creatures 

 as we know them. 



Another "preparation," if the non-scientific ques- 

 tion-begging term is permissible, has been emphasized 

 by Professor Chamberlin, and that was the making 

 of a soil. Let us suppose for the moment that proc- 

 esses of chemical synthesis were going on; the pores 

 of the growing soil would afford "an adequate mecha- 

 nism for holding, protecting, and preserving the 

 products of each successive step in such a way as to 



