72 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



aggregates, and why the former are unstable or dy- 

 namical aggregates. The molecules in the crystal are 

 delivered over to the action of their natural affinities, 

 which are perhaps few and simple j whilst in the col- 

 loidal and living aggregates more and more potential 

 heat or motion is retained, so as to constitute an in- 

 herent condition so favourable to molecular rearrange- 

 ments, that they are induced by the slightest external 

 influences. 



The highest product formable from the one kind of 

 matter is known as a crystal^ whilst the highest product 

 formable from the other is called an organism. We 

 name the process by which the one arises ^ crystalliza- 

 tion,' and that by which the other appears ' archebiosis ' 

 — with the understanding that, in the latter case, a 

 material combination has been initiated possessing 

 such a set of qualities as we are accustomed to desig- 

 nate by the word ^ life.' The crystal is resolvable into 

 comparatively simple molecules, which have, however, 

 themselves been produced by those combinations of 

 acid with base which occasion their separation from 

 the state of solution ; whilst the organism is made up 

 of highly complex constituent molecules, which have 

 been derived from synthetic changes amongst colloidal 

 molecules preceding the final union which causes them 

 to separate from the state of solution. Just as the 

 origin of the crystal is due to the operation of molecular 

 affinities, under the influence of the ' conditions ' which 

 are operative in its medium, so is the origin of the 



