\ 



72 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



aggregates, and why the former are unstable or dy. 



namical aggregates. 



molecules 



from 



delivered over to the action of their natural affinities 

 which are perhaps few and simple- whilst in the co/. 

 loidal and living aggregates more and more potential 

 heat or motion is retained, so as to constitute an in- 

 herent condition so favourable to molecular rearrange- 

 ments, that they are induced by the slightest external 

 influences. 



The highest product formable from the one kind of 



r 



matter is known as a crystal^ whilst the highest product 



called an organism. We 

 name the process by which the one arises "■ crystalliza- 

 tion,' and that by which the other appears <^archebiosis' 

 — with the understanding that, in the latter case, a 

 material combination has been initiated possessing 

 such a set of qualities as we are accustomed to desig- 

 nate by the word '■ life.' The crystal is resolvable into 

 comparatively simple molecules, which have, however, 

 themselves been produced by those combinations of 

 acid with base which occasion their separation from 

 the state of solution • whilst the organism is made up 

 of highly complex constituent molecules, which have 

 been derived from synthetic changes amongst colloidal 

 molecules preceding the final union which causes them 

 to separate from the state of solution. Just as the 

 origin of the crystal is due to the operation of molecular 



)f the ' conditions ' which 

 SO is the origin of the 



affinities 



medium 



I 



I 



> 



f^ 



€'■ ,^aer; « 



c 



oinp 



\tl 



oru'-'j 



just as 



the 



forni 



as 



the 



nat 



oiisti 



c 



# 



itueflt 



mole 

 tl 



ties of its molea 



tk influence of tl 



Views analogoi 



ij expressed by 



aritj in 



the law 



was even 



Crystals and orgc 

 as statical and dyi 

 lave seen, moreo' 



sav 



Milne-Edwards 



lis dont la c( 

 * «ec Clusant e 



'*"^ theorie de la' 



^*Hsdela 

 ''wive en . 



aiHii. ^ certain 



! 



oati 



'Wtf 



<l«il 



'^-aparai 



pa 





\ 



1, 



1 1 



cein 



''%\ 



K 



