Ill REFORMED CONCEPT OF MATTER 37 



forms we know to-day, the mutation may after all not have been 

 so great. In any case a dose scrutiny of the nature of matter, 

 as revealed by the New Physics, and especially colloid chemistry, 

 brings it very near to the concept of life. 



Let us now proceed to consider how recent advances in 

 our knowledge of the constitution of matter have empha- 

 sised the importance of this same feature of structure in the 

 physical universe. Chemistry had for*a century been explor- 

 ing with great success the structure and constitution of 

 matter, but the New Physics of Radioactivity has during 

 the last twenty years proved a most powerful aid to Chem- 

 istry and led to discoveries which are little short of revolu- 

 tionary. To Chemistry was due the analysis of matter into a 

 certain number of elements, each with its own physical and 

 chemical properties; the discovery of the atom as the ulti- 

 mate unit of each element of matter; the union of atoms of 

 each element into simple molecules of that element, and the 

 union of atoms of various elements into compound molecules. 

 The combinations of elements in definite quantitative pro- 

 portions was explained as the union of one or more of the 

 atoms of these elements with each other. From this it might 

 be inferred that the combinations of Chemistry were like the 

 combinations of Arithmetic, and that the whole numbers of 

 Arithmetic might properly represent the atoms of Chemistry 

 and their combinations into compounds. This inference has, 

 however, only been actually verified by the recent physical 

 discoveries. It was not only the fact of numerical or 

 quantitative structure that was important to Chemistry; 

 the spatial or positional structure of matter, the order of 

 placing and spacing of the atoms in the chemical substance, 

 the architecture of matter became almost equally important, 

 and in many cases the properties of a substance could only 

 be explained on the basis of its real or supposed inner 

 structure and configuration. Thus molecules of carbon 

 could be either coal or graphite or diamond, and this great 

 dissimilarity in the same chemical substance was explained 

 as the result of the difference of structure in the placing 

 and spacing of the atoms in the carbon molecule. Sulphur 



