74 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



phosphorescent molecules on the one hand, and the 

 molecular instability and vast store of energy in the 

 molecules of cyanogen and its polymers on the other, 

 as also of albuminoids and other highly complicated 

 colloidal organic compounds which coagulate at high 

 temperatures, as we suppose flames to do. 



Are, then, these unstable molecules and atoms 

 only simpler forms of living things ? It is largely a 

 matter of definition, but if we accept vital process to 

 be " a continuous adjustment of internal to external 

 relations," then there seems no reason to suppose 

 that that " continuous adjustment " should not be 

 extended to the " internal and external relations " 

 between corpuscles and material objects, particularly 

 as that instability of molecular interactions is found 

 to be the striking feature in one as well as in the 

 other. 



The processes of radiation and absorption of matter 

 are thus a part of these relations ; so that if we find they 

 are not reckoned with, the continuity between the so- 

 called living matter and the dead breaks down, and we 

 may find sufiicient grounds for our attempts to recon- 

 sider the definition of the vital processes which bio- 

 logists have hitherto maintained. Our own opinion is, 

 as we have said elsewhere,^ that " the atom preserves 

 its identity in the same manner as the cell does, and 

 bears the same relation to the latter that this does to 

 a living organism. The barrier, apparently insuperable, 

 which the biologist holds to exist between living and 



1 " The Eadio-activity of Matter," Monthly Beview, Nov. 

 1903. 



