5 8 HISTOL YTIC AND HISTOGENE TIC. 



eminence as the word "molecular." " Molecular forces " are 

 supposed to account for some of the most important pheno- 

 mena of living beings. Molecular physics is the science of 

 living things, and it would seem that those who understand it 

 are enabled to account for every vital action. He who has a 

 knowledge of molecular physics has an inestimable advantage 

 over the man who knows everything except this trans- 

 cendantly important subject. The highest intellect should 

 be devoted to the study of the laws which govern molecular 

 changes and to the discovery of molecules. It unfortunately 

 happens, however, that hitherto no one has been able to define 

 exactly what is to be understood by a " molecule." There 

 is no particle of any definite size to which this name has 

 been restricted by common consent. The minute solid 

 particles seen in various fluids might be called granules or 

 molecules, or matter in a minute state of division, as well as 

 molecular material. Moreover there is, as I have shown, 

 a great distinction between the inanimate granules or mole- 

 cules which may be precipitated from fluids, and the living 

 molecules which spring from pre-existing molecules. I have 

 adduced reasons for believing that living independent or- 

 ganisms exist which are so small as not to be visible by the 

 highest power until they have lived for some time and 

 grown. 



Dr. Hughes Bennett affirms that living structures are 

 composed of histolytic and histogenetic molecules, or molecules 

 of disintegration and molecules of formation. "The histo- 

 genetic molecules are formed either from the union of two 

 simple organic fluids, or from precipitations occurring in 

 formative fluids holding various substances in solution." 

 " The histolytic molecules are the result of the transforma- 



