Scientific Sophisms. 7 l 



baser metal, because he had already moulded 

 it and coloured it in four or five thousand differ- 

 ent fashions. It is riot in any sense true that 

 any substance even distantly resembling or- 

 ganizable matter has been formed. The line 

 of demarcation between the organic and the 

 inorganic is as wide as ever. For what are 

 these " organic " matters said to have been 

 formed from their elements ? They are chiefly 

 binary and ternary compounds ; certain acids 

 of the compound radical class, some alcohols, 

 ethers, and the like. Not one of them bears 

 the most remote resemblance to anything that 

 can live. Few of them contain nitrogen, and 

 these few, chiefly amides, are only combinations 

 of ammonia or ammonium with other binary 

 or ternary compounds, and can only by courtesy 

 or convention be allowed to be of " organic " 

 nature. Neither chemically nor physically are 

 they in any way allied to matter possessing the 

 capacity of life. " One least particle of albu- 

 men, granulated or not granulated, would be 

 an answer a thousandfold more crushing to the 

 opponents of Evolution than myriads of such 

 compounds." 



It is now thirty-five years since the author of 

 the " Vestiges," in his " vigorous exposition," 

 enunciated the "belief" that "albumen" 



