1 62 LEISURE-TIME STUDIES. 



dated by his coadjutor, Buffon. On this theory known to 

 modern physiology as that of " organic molecules " it was 

 held that the essential parts of living beings consisted of 

 infinitesimally minute atoms or molecules, these particles 

 being invested with an indestructible vitality, and with extra- 

 ordinary powers of development and reproduction. These 

 organic molecules, according to Buffon, form all living 

 beings by their temporary combination, and are set free by 

 the death of the organism, to assume other shapes and forms 

 of living things. This conception, in short, existed as a 

 kind of physical metempsychosis ; so that, holding the doc- 

 trine of the French philosopher, we might believe that the 

 atoms of which our own bodies are composed were derived 

 from other, and it might be much lower, forms of life ; 

 whilst, when liberated by the death of the human organism, 

 they would enter into new combinations, and might appear 

 in any form, from that of the animalcules or lower plants in 

 the stagnant pool, to that of the highest living thing. Thus 

 Hamlet may be said to enunciate the essential features of 

 at least one aspect of the theory of organic molecules when 

 he says 



" Imperious Csesar, dead and turned to clay, 

 Might stop a hole to keep the wind away : 

 Oh, that the earth, which kept the world in awe, 

 Should patch a wall to expel the winter's flaw ! " 



Such a theory applied to explain the origin of living beings 

 may fitly demonstrate the use of the imagination and fancy 

 in science, whilst it may also illustrate the "groundless 

 hypotheses " regarding the origin of living beings which 

 existed in such profusion some two centuries ago. One 

 Drelincourt took the trouble to enumerate no fewer than 

 two hundred and sixty-two such " groundless hypotheses : " 

 Blumenbach quaintly remarking that "nothing is more 

 certain than that Drelincourt's own theory formed the two 

 hundred and sixty-third." 



Amongst the scientists who followed the experiments of 

 Needham with a jealous care, was the celebrated Abbe 



