THE ATOMIC VIEW OF NATURE. 



457 



Third. The atomic view, as developed in chemical for- 

 mulae, has unduly favoured and promoted the analytical 

 tendency of research and thought, limiting synthesis 

 to such compounds as can be artificially prepared, 

 but neglecting that kind of synthesis by which com- 

 pounds are formed in nature, and especially in living 

 organisms. 1 



As representative of these three lines of argument, 

 leading beyond or outside of the atomic view of nature, 

 I mention the three names of Lord Kelvin in England, 

 coupled with the kinetic specially the vortex theory of 

 matter ; of Professor Ostwald in Germany, coupled with 

 the modern doctrines of chemical affinity ; and of M. 

 Berthelot in France, as especially identified with the de- 

 velopment of modern synthetical methods in chemistry. 

 In the next chapter I shall take up the line of thought 

 embodied in the first of these developments the kinetic 

 view of nature. In order to understand the history of 

 this view, we shall have to go back to opinions held 



istry,' written in 1862 and reprint- 

 ed in the subsequent editions and 

 also in the English translation by 

 Bedsonand Williams (London,1888), 

 gives a very lucid summary of the 

 historical developments. The pub- 

 lication of Meyer's book, by the 

 controversies it produced, did a 

 great deal to give " theoretical " or 

 " physical" chemistry a distinct and 

 independent position. Separate 

 chairs and laboratories for physical 

 chemistry have since been inaug- 

 urated, first at Leipsic and subse- 

 quently at other German univer- 

 sities. See Ostwald's article on 

 " Physikalische Chemie," in Lexis, 

 ' Die deutschen Universitaten,' vol. 



VOL. I. 



ii. p. 50, &c. Professor Ostwald is 

 also the editor, since 1857, of the 

 first periodical devoted to physical 

 chemistry. To his great work, 

 entitled ' Allgemeine Chemie, ' 

 which, since its first appearance 

 in 1884, has done so much for 

 " general " as distinguished from 

 " systematic " chemistry, and to his 

 numerous suggestive addresses, I 

 shall frequently have occasion to 

 refer. 



1 See the works of M. Berthelot, 

 quoted above, pp. 454, 455 ; also 

 an address by Prof. Meldola before 

 the chemical section of the British 

 Association in 1895. 



2 G 



