THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 71 



another is much stronger than for the molecules of 

 the solvent. But the slow and long-continued action 

 of a more moderate amount of heat, will lead to those 

 higher kinds of collocation that are possible for such 

 more complex molecules, and by which specks of what 

 we call c living ' matter make their appearance through- 

 out the fluid. These speedily grow into primordial 

 organisms known as Bacteria, and more especially if 

 the separation has taken place still more slowly into 

 Torultf or other kinds of Fungus-germs. We must con- 

 sider such well-known organisms to be just as much 

 immediate products derivable from colloidal matter, as 

 crystals are the results of those modes of aggregation 

 which are habitual and necessary among simpler mole- 

 cules a . 



When we consider, moreover, that heat is consumed 

 in the building up of colloidal matter, and in the 

 growth (and therefore probably in the genesis) of 

 organisms, whilst, on the other hand, heat is emitted 

 or given out when crystals form, we may get some dim 

 indications as to why the latter are stable or statical 



1 We have already mentioned the fact shown by Crosse, that elec- 

 tricity has a most marked influence in determining the formation of 

 crystals. It has been seen also, from the observations of Bridgman, that 

 electricity hastens the formation of such artificial calculi, as were 

 described by Rainey. From the fact of the great proneness of organic 

 substances to putrefy or ferment during or before the advent of a 

 thunder-storm, and in view of the definite observations recorded at 

 vol. i. p. 288, it would seem highly probable that electrical influence 

 may also favour the formation of organisms and the evolution of living 

 matter. 



