ALL MATTER, TONDERABLE AND IMPONDERABLE. 285 



tlie two directions. The time wliicli eqnal volumes of different ceases occn])v in 

 passiiifi^ throuc'li the g-raphite are ajiproximately proportional to the square roots 

 of their respective densities. Moreover, as tlie (thserved i)henomena prove that 

 the duration of the passage of the gases tlirough tlie lamina of graj)hite bears no 

 relation to the time necessary for capillary transpiration, it must he concluded 

 that the penetration of the gases through the pores of tlu^ graphite is owing to 

 their j)roper molecular movements. The diffusion of which we speak alfords U3 

 the most simple example of molecular movements, and renders them, so to speak, 

 visilde by the variiiiions of volume. 



From the foregoing it would appear that the pores of graphite are of so great 

 tenuity tliat there can be neither transpiration nor passage in mass of elastic thuds, 

 and the graphite may thus be considered a sort of sieve Avhich allows only the 

 individual molecules to pass. 



The most ordinary observation constantly teaches lis that animal and vegetable 

 matter, exposed after death to the contact of the air or buried in the eai'th, under- 

 goes numerous transformations. Fermentation, putrefaction, and slow combus- 

 tion are the three natural phenomena which co-operate for the accomplishment 

 of the disaggregation of organized matter, a disaggregation necessary for the 

 per|)etuation of life on the surface of the globe. 



The most recent experiments of M. Pasteur lead us to recognize that the life 

 which is manifested in the very lowest organized productions, is indispensable to 

 the accomplishment of the three ]^heuomena which complete the nietamorplioses 

 of organized matter. The life of those inferior organisms presents this i)eculiar 

 character, that it has no need of air or of free oxygen ; a peculiarity which was 

 unknown before the investigations of M. Pasteur. It has not been long since 

 this eminent French chemist established experimentally that the slow combustion 

 of which dead organic substances become the seat, when exposed to the coutact 

 of the air, stand, in the greatest number of cases, in close connection with the 

 presence of living beings pertaining to the inferior classes of the organic kingdom. 

 From this fact it flows, as a general consequence, that life presides at the wrjrk 

 of death in all its phases, and that the three terms of this perpetual restoration 

 to the atmospheric air and to the mineral kingdom of the principles which vege- 

 tables and animals have extracted from them are correlatives of the develop- 

 ment and multipli(uition of organized beings. 



How is it possible, after this, to refuse to admit that all nitrogenated ])lastic 

 substances may acquire, under the influence of a direct oxydatiou, a fon^e ciiarac- 

 terized by an internal movement, suited for being connnunicated to organic sub- 

 stances ? The solid crust of our globe, the waters which cover it and the atmos- 

 phere which surrounds it, were they deprived of all proper moh^cular mov(!ment, 

 would still be agitated constantly and in all their parts, under the sole influence, 

 continually variable as it is, of the solar rays which produce light, heal, and 

 chemical action. We are thus led to consider the activities of subtile matter and 

 the admiral)le phenomena of which it is the seat. How manifold and energetic 

 are the modifications produced by this subtle matter, in the state of light, on all 

 the bodies of nature. 



Every one know's that phosphorus becomes red in nitrogen, in hydrog(ni and 

 in tlu; barometric vacuum, under the sole influence of light ; that, under this same 

 influence, the sulphate of n)ercury contained in a close vessel beconjes black, 

 sealing wax grows white, bismuth acquires a violet tint, certain wliite crystals 

 becoujc gradually purple; that the iodides, the bromides, the chlorides, undergo 

 rapiil alreration, &c It is to this prooerty possessed l)y light of determiniug, in 

 both solids and liquids, different molecular groupings, that we owe the wonderful 

 art of n-jiroducing and lixing the image of i)ersons au<l olijects that are dear to 

 us, with all the rigur of truth, and, so to speak, with the rapidity of thouiiht. 



These i)henomena, and a great number of others w^hich light produces on 

 inorganic bodies, as well as on animals and vegetables, are due to vibratory 



