32 ORIGIN AND NATURE OF LIFE 



to about eighty in all, which were, and are, 

 called the chemical elements. These forms 

 could not be resolved into anything simpler 

 by known chemical reactions, and for this 

 reason, indeed, were called elements, and by 

 combinations of these amongst one another, 

 all chemical compounds were formed. The 

 amount of each chemical element was fixed 

 and inviolable, and that same amount always 

 had existed in the universe and always would 

 exist. The evidence for this view was just as 

 good, and no better, than that of which we 

 stand possessed for the doctrine of conserva- 

 tion of matter as a whole, namely, that how- 

 ever the element might be transformed and 

 disappear into chemical combination, by the 

 application of appropriate chemical means 

 exactly that amount of it was recoverable 

 again. In all chemical reactions not only did 

 the total masses, as measured by weighing 

 the reacting substances, remain constant 

 so demonstrating the law of conservation of 

 matter, the total mass of each element also 

 remained constant so demonstrating the law 

 of conservation of the elements. 



But it has recently been shown experiment- 

 ally that matter, which by all criteria must be 

 regarded as elemental, in the chemical sense, 

 is in certain cases so endowed with peculiar 



