18 ORIGIN AND NATURE OF LIFE 



laws of inorganic chemistry furnish a life- 

 study for the chemist and physicist. More- 

 over, there is no breach of continuity between 

 the inorganic and the organic, or any need 

 for the postulation of an abrupt act of creation 

 of the organic from the inorganic at some 

 definite past moment in cosmic history which 

 has never been repeated. 



There exists a whole territory of approach 

 between the inorganic and the organic in 

 what is known as the chemistry of the col- 

 loids, and it is a most remarkable thing that 

 this great fact, which is only now beginning 

 to be appreciated, was perceived and clearly 

 set forth by Thomas Graham, the pioneer 

 worker on the chemistry of the colloids, to 

 whom we owe the introduction of the term 

 colloid and many master discoveries in this 

 most interesting zone of chemistry which now 

 claims hundreds of ardent workers all over 

 the world. 



The study of colloids has not only had 

 profound effects upon our philosophical 

 conceptions of chemistry ; it is producing 

 enormous changes in many fields of industry, 

 for colloids are amongst the most important 

 of the chemical substances utilized by civi- 

 lized man, and in the future the study of the 

 properties of the colloids found in living 



