218 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Mat 



soil, are but the changes some other matters have undergone 

 which have circulated through innumerable channels since the 

 first production of all things, and no particle been lost. J. 



The Transmigrations of Matter. 



The mountain rock, exposed to the disintegrating effects of 

 the weather, loses that peculiar chemical or cohesive life which 

 keeps it from changing or decaying, and crumbles into dust, 

 in which state it is borne down by the storm on the stream to 

 the plain. The soil thus formed is taken up by the roots of 

 plants, and eliminated into the various parts of their structure. 

 These plants die, and form by their decomposing remains a 

 rich and fertile mould. Down into this stratum of decay and 

 death the grass strikes its roots, and forms the support of those 

 animals which man rears exclusively for food. The particles 

 thus organised become endowed with the highest vitality, and 

 are associated with the immortal spirit in the closest and most 

 intimate relationship, so that what is now bone of our bone and 

 flesh of our flesh may have once formed part of a granita rock 

 protruding far up among the clouds on some distant mountain 

 peak. B. 



The Extreme Divisibility of Matter. 



Divisibility is the property in virtue of which a body may 

 be divided into distinct parts : and very wonderful are its results. 

 Numerous examples may be cited of the extreme divisibility of 

 matter. The tenth part of a grain of musk will continue for 

 years to fill a room with its odoriferous particles, and at the 

 end of that time will scarcely be diminished in weight. Blood 

 is composed of red flattened globules floating in a colourless 

 liquid called serum. In man the diameter of one of these 

 globules is less than the 35ooth part of an inch, and the drop 

 of blood which might be suspended from the point of a needle 

 would contain about a million of globules. Again, the micro- 

 scope has disclosed to us the existence of insects smaller even 

 than these particles of blood ; the struggle for existence reaches 

 even to these little creatures, for they devour still smaller ones. 



