EVOLUTION OF COLLOIDS 157 



of the gelatinous colloid partakes of fluidity, 

 and enables the colloid to become a medium 

 for liquid diffusion, like water itself." 



" Another and eminently characteristic 

 quality of colloids is their mutability. Their 

 existence is a continued metastasis. A colloid 

 may be compared in this respect to water 

 while existing liquid at a temperature under 

 its usual freezing-point, or to a supersaturated 

 saline solution. Fluid colloids appear to 

 have always a pectous modification ; and 

 they often pass under the slightest influence 

 from the first into the second condition." 



" The colloid is, in fact, a dynamical state 

 of matter ; the crystalloidal being the statical 

 condition. The colloid possesses Energia. 

 It may be looked upon as the probable 

 primary source of the force appearing in the 

 phenomena of vitality. To the gradual 

 manner in which colloidal changes take place 

 (for they always demand time as an element) 

 may the characteristic protraction of chemico- 

 organic changes also be referred." 



The importance of these slow energy 

 changes in colloids referred to in the above 

 extract by Graham, half a century ago, and 

 the capability of their alteration and travel 

 in new directions on account of small changes 

 in the crystalloidal environment, so giving 



