72 WHAT IS LIFE? 



power a combining power of a very high order a com- 

 bination which is termed organic. 1 Such a residual mix- 

 ture we may call " Argon," but we must not regard it as 

 an element. 2 Now what would be the consequence of 

 such a condition of things ? The chemist or physicist 

 would never be able to cause this mixed atomic matter, 

 which he calls " Argon," to combine with any other 

 element, 3 because each species of the elements of which 

 these gases in mass consist, called Argon, has its special 

 complex combining properties, and as there may be, and 

 probably are, millions of these different species of atoms 

 then if our deduction is true, the artificial combina- 

 tion of Argon is impossible. The chemist could suc- 

 ceed if he could isolate one atom of these very rare 

 elements, and could collect together a mass of other 



1 " The essential constituent of each digestive fluid is a ferment- 

 ptyalin in saliva, pepsin in gastric juice, trypsin in pancreatic juice, 

 invert in in intestinal juice. These and other ferments are the specific 

 agents by which the digestive transformations of food are effected. 

 They are the occult agents of modern physiology, inasmuch as they 

 have never been isolated as definite bodies, and are recognized to be 

 present only by the effects they produce. They are not confined to 

 animals, but are also found in plants." (" An Introduction to 

 Human Physiology," A. D. Waller, M.D., F.R.S., 1896, p. 162.) 



We thus see what an immense field of research is open to the 

 chemist. Is it not a field so vast as to be beyond the human power 

 to investigate, in order to isolate such complex factors ? 



2 Prof. Ramsay has now proved that " Argon " is not an 

 elementary gas, for he finds it contains six distinctly different gases 

 which he calls "neon," "krypton," "xenon," " metargon," and 

 " helium." Nature, Jan. 26th, 1899. 



3 Prof. William Ramsay's Address to the Chemical Section, 

 British Association, Toronto, 1897, entirely confirms the Author's 

 views. 



