86 



THE BEGINNINGS OF UFE. 



dissimilar does not readily segregate them, but that it 

 readily segregates them if they are widely dissimilar. 



extreme 



■een 



physical mobilities, and the other between chemical 

 activities, fulfil in the highest degree a certain further 

 condition to facility of differentiation and integra- 

 tion.' 



Thus, then, the very fact that organizable matter is, 



in the main, compounded of elements with such dis- 

 similar properties, affords a strong a priori presumption 

 that such organizable matter would be most unstable, 

 and most prone to undergo metamorphic changes under 



4 



the influence of even slight changes of condition— such 

 as might operate without appreciable result upon the 

 majority of inorganic substances. The properties of 

 the various protein substances which form the all- 

 essential constituents of living tissues, are found to 

 correspond entirely with these a prion requirements. 

 This can scarcely be better shown than it has been 



Spencer when he wrote ^ : — ^ It is, however, the 



Mr 



nitrogenous constituents of living tissues that dis- 

 play most markedly those ■ characteristics of which 



we 



have been tracing the growth. Albumen, fibrin. 



casein, and their allies are bodies in 



which that 



molecular mobility exhibited by three of their coni- 

 ponents in so high a degree is reduced to a mini- 

 mum. These substances are known only in the solw 



that is to say, when deprived of the water 



state 



* Log. cit. p. 12. 



) 



* 



rh 



chemical char^ 

 stability and ir 



5 



e 



hould be 

 xhibit in 



note( 

 the 



mobility whicl 

 as wholes, the] 

 molecular mob 

 es permanei 

 atoms with rei 

 a soluble and i 

 indications of 

 appears that tt 

 slight changes 

 stable and int 



comple 



tlie four chief 



small 



atomic 



Pfoporti 



since th 



*hich 



of the 

 not of 







tw 



the 



ey are ' 



*efou 



oi'gani 

 sinde 



5 



thr 



ee 



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greatest 



e: 



