THE BREATH OF LIFE 



alchemy and chemistry, through physical and as- 

 tronomical spectroscopy, lastly through radio-ac- 

 tivity, science has slowly groped its way to the 

 atom." The physicists make definite statements 

 about these hypothetical bodies all based upon 

 definite chemical phenomena. Thus Clerk Maxwell 

 assumes that they are spherical, that the spheres 

 are hard and elastic like billiard-balls, that they col- 

 lide and glance off from one another in the same 

 way, that is, that they collide at their surfaces and 

 not at their centres. 



Only two of our senses make us acquainted with 

 matter in a state which may be said to approach the 

 atomic — smell and taste. Odors are material ema- 

 nations, and represent a division of matter into in- 

 conceivably small particles. What are the perfumes 

 we smell but emanations, flying atoms or electrons, 

 radiating in all directions, and continuing for a 

 shorter or longer time without any appreciable 

 diminution in bulk or weight of the substances that 

 give them off? How many millions or trillions of 

 times does the rose divide its heart in the perfume 

 it sheds so freely upon the air? The odor of the 

 musk of certain animals lingers under certain con- 

 ditions for years. The imagination is baffled in try- 

 ing to conceive of the number and minuteness of 

 the particles which the fox leaves of itself in the 

 snow where its foot was imprinted — so palpable 

 that the scent of a hound can seize upon them hours 



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