68 WHAT IS LIFE ? 



can the chemist possibly detect the rarer elements ? 

 He takes masses of matter a great unknown number 

 (the mathematical x) of molecules, and submits them 

 to his various processes of analysis in order to obtain 

 what he calls chemical elements. Naturally, in the 

 course of things the chemist would most readily 

 discover the more plentiful of the elements, but the 

 rarer would elude his observation. His mode of 

 procedure is always the following. For the sake of 

 simplification, instead of dealing with oxygen, hydrogen, 

 and so forth, we will call the elementary species after 

 the letters of the alphabet. Let us regard a mass of 

 molecules consisting of three elements, say A, B, C. 

 They are in chemical combination, or, as the chemist 

 calls them, " bonded together." A very convenient 

 term, but the chemist does not understand what 

 " bonding " means. Under a certain temperature the 

 chemist puts another element, say D, to the combi- 

 nation, and Nature, not the chemist, performs a reaction. 

 C from its inherent and eternal powers bonds itself with 

 D in preference to his previous associates A, B. What is 

 the consequence ? The chemist finds, strictly in harmony 

 with the forces in Nature, and no other, that he is in 

 possession of the groups of molecular matter called A, 

 B and C, D. Having succeeded thus far, his object is 

 to isolate A from B. He presents another element, say 

 E (or it may be a compound a mass of molecules), to 

 the combination A, B. And B, strictly in accordance 

 with, and only with its inherent eternal powers, elects 

 to associate itself with E in preference to its old com- 

 panion A. A being the weakest in combining, is left 

 isolated, and if the chemist can find no class of atoms or 



