186 MADDEN'S COMPLEXITY SEEIES. 



respecting the nature of force and the distinction be- 

 tween force and property, which reconcile Fletcher's 

 hypothesis with the modern doctrine of force and 

 bring it into harmony with Beale's discovery of the 

 unity of the protoplasm. He then goes on to say, 

 " We have now, therefore, reached the confines of 

 physiology, and we have seen four classes of com- 

 plexity, each of which contains many degrees, viz., 

 1st. Atomic complexity, varying in accordance with 

 the atomic weight of the element ; 2nd. Chemical com- 

 plexity, varying according to the number of elements 

 and the number of atoms of each which go to form 

 each chemical combination; 3rd. Colloid complexity ; 

 4th. Metabolic complexity. We have likewise seen 

 that this last and most complex molecular arrange- 

 ment of all must be reached ere the phenomena of life 

 can be manifested." While agreeing with this scale 

 of complexity as a matter of fact, I would state it dif- 

 ferently, in order to retain the simplicity of the sharp 

 antithesis between chemical on the one hand and 

 metabolic on the other. So, putting aside for the 

 present the compound nature of the elements, and as 

 there is no question but that the colloids are simply 

 chemical compounds, we have the reactions of the ele- 

 ments up to the degree of colloids and all organic 

 proximate principles, called chemical, while those 

 higher reactions characterized by life are called meta- 

 bolic. When we call to mind the hypothesis of 

 Samuel Brown, that the elements themselves may 

 owe their distinctive properties to the mere number 

 and grouping of certain ultimate atoms of one kind-^ 

 a hypothesis now almost proved true by the more 



