MINUTENESS OF ATOMS. 71 



also evident, that whenever the specific gravity 

 of gases does not correspond with their atomic 

 weights, they vary according to the law of multi- 

 ples or submultiples, which renders the theory 

 of volumes nearly as simple as if the atom and 

 the volume were always the same. 



It is exceedingly difficult, if not wholly impos- 

 sible, to explain the foregoing phenomena of che- 

 mical combination, without adopting the theory 

 of Newton, Higgins, and Dalton, that the ele- 

 ments of ponderable matter are composed of ulti- 

 mate atoms, which, however minute they may be, 

 must have both extension and weight. If they 

 were mere mathematical points, or mere centres of 

 force, without extension, as maintained by Bosco- 

 vich and Exley, they could not possibly form ex- 

 tended and massy aggregates. That ponderable 

 matter consists of incalculably small particles or 

 atoms, is evident from all the phenomena of solu- 

 tion, the diffusion of odours, and the minuteness 

 of organized animalcules. According to the ob- 

 servations of Ehrenberg, the monas, which has a 

 complicated stomach and other organs, is not 

 more than a 20-thousandth part of an inch in 

 diameter ; while other species have been disco- 

 vered, so minute, that a million of them have been 

 supposed not to exceed the magnitude of a single 

 grain of sand. 



The phenomena of crystallization are not less 

 astonishing. When a drop of muriate of ammo- 



