46 ORIGIN AND NATURE OF LIFE 



disease. Even this much would be a great 

 triumph, for it lies within our power as a race 

 practically to abolish infectious diseases and 

 wrongful habits, which are responsible for 

 half the deaths, and four-fifths of the disease 

 and suffering which afflict humanity. 



After all, it is the happiness of health during 

 an allotted span rather than mere length of 

 days that is the greatest gain. The suffering 

 entailed by disease during life is a real evil 

 compared with which death at a ripe old age 

 is only a chimerical misapprehension. 



Returning to the question of the atomic 

 constitution of matter, it may be pointed out 

 that the view that matter which enters into 

 chemical combinations such as form the 

 inorganic constituents of the earth and 

 the living bodies of plants and animals, is 

 particulate, and built up by unions in varying 

 combinations of eighty or more chemical 

 elements, does not exclude the view that the 

 remainder of space is filled up by non-particu- 

 late matter of a certain density, but possessing 

 no weight because it represents the zero of 

 density, or mass, and cannot be separated or 

 weighed. There exists from this point of 

 view no vacuum in space, and the completest 

 vacuum known is that which contains only 

 this non-particulate material, or luminiferous 



