ANNUAL ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. XXxXV 
COMBINATION OF MATTER. 
When the various bodies known to mind are resolved into their 
constituent parts to the utmost of art and knowledge, such parts 
are found to be so minute as almost to disappear in the perspective 
toward the infinitesimal. The molecular bodies thus dimly discerned 
‘are combined and re-combined, until substances are produced that 
come distinctly within the cognizance of our senses, so that we are 
able to observe their forms and motions. These molar bodies 
are again combined, until at last bodies of such magnitude are pro- 
duced that they are but dimly discerned in the perspective toward 
the infinite—stellar systems that appear not to the eye, but only to 
the mind’s eye. 
INORGANIC COMBINATION. 
Matter is primarily combined by chemical affinity. The sub 
stances thus produced appear in three states: gaseous, fluid, and 
solid, but are not clearly demarcated. That chemically combined 
matter which is found in the solid state is further combined by crys- 
tallization and lithifaction. It may be that these methods are parts 
of the same process, and further, that they are one with chemical 
affinity ; at any rate it is impossible clearly to demarcate them. 
- They are also influenced by gravity, and to a large extent act under 
its control. Thus it is that gravity, and affinity with its concomi- 
tants, unite in molecularly combining matter into inorganic sub- 
stances. Again, these bodies are mechanically combined into geo- 
logic formations, bodies of water, and bodies of air, and such com- 
binations result from gravity. Finally they are all combined into 
an aggregate, the earth itself, solid, fluid, and gaseous. This also 
results from gravity. 
In the succession of combinations thus briefly reviewed, the first 
natural aggregate reached is the earth. Below that we have chemi- 
cal and mechanical substances, which do not constitute integers, but 
only integral parts. The earth itself is a whole—an aggregation, 
as the term is here used. 
Again, the earth is one of the bodies of the solar system, which 
is a combination of worlds. This aggregation, also, is controlled by 
gravity. Other higher astronomic aggregates may exist. 
ORGANIC COMBINATION. 
Portions of the matter combined by affinity and gravity are seg- 
LIBRARY 
} SEP 6 J888 
1 LW we see SND DWIID 
