LIFE FROM A PHYSICAL STANDPOINT. 1 1 



individual vibratory rates would in no way be interfered with. 

 If the whole should be turned about so as to be looked at edge- 

 wise, it would look like a triangular arrangement 

 (Fig. 3), and half a dozen such would fit together 

 to form a hexagon (Fig. 4), a form of crystal- 

 lization very common; for example : water, HaO; 

 silicon, SiO 2 . Again, assume that 2, 3, 4, and 

 5 should each swing upwards together until FJ G. 3- 



their edges touch ; they would then form the sides of a cubical 

 box, and, as in the other case, their nodes would be opposite 

 each other, and there would be no interfer- 

 ence of vibratory motions. Similar cubes 

 could be added on every side, and a cubic 

 structure built up of any size if the 

 individual rings were of the same size. If 

 some of them were of different size the 

 resulting structure would have some angle 

 FlG - 4. of inclination of its sides which would be 



uniform if the individual parts were similar. If such triangular, 

 cubical or other elementary form be a stable one, as evidently 

 it would be mechanically, one might call it a molecule, but its 

 form would be seen to depend upon its vibratory motions, and 

 if this constituted the temperature of the body, then it would be 

 clear how molecular form depends upon heat. 



Suppose now the amplitude of such motions were to in- 

 crease, the stability of the combination would necessarily grow 

 less and less until it would be mechanically impossible for any 

 two atoms to remain together. Such increase in amplitude 

 means increase in temperature, and such breaking up of chemi- 

 cal combination by heat is called dissociation. This kind of a 

 process with only details varied in a mechanical way gives an 

 intelligible account of the actions called chemical, and they are 

 in complete accord with that new science which has been 

 developed within the past few years and is known as thermo- 

 dynamics. Investigations of many sorts have led physicists 

 and chemists to the conclusion that at absolute zero chemi- 

 cal action cannot take place. Indeed, long before that temper- 

 ature is reached, substances that energetically 'combine at ordi- 



