28 PHARMACEUTICAL BACTERIOLOGY 



to the renewal of life and to the advance or evolution of living things 

 and now the physicist presents a similar idea applied to the atom and to 

 the molecule. The atom is no longer considered to be the ultimate unit of 

 matter, unchangeable, indivisible and undestructible. The atom is 

 rather a miniature universe consisting of a definitely known electric charge 

 composed of a positive nucleus about which revolve the negative electrons 

 in definite orbits. The newer teaching of physics is to the effect that the 

 only difference between hydrogen and oxygen, for example, is that the 

 oxygen atom has i6 times more negative electrons grouped about the 

 positive nucleus. The radium atom differs only in the greater number of 

 electrons. The molecule, no matter how simple or how complex, is 

 nothing mere than a grouping of electrons. If this be anywhere near the 

 actual facts, and much of the experimental evidence is confirmatory, we 

 at once obtain a new significance of the periodic grouping of the elements 

 (as given by Mendeleeff and Lothar Meyer) and the relationship of mole- 

 cules. Life is thus resolved into electronic groupings and electronic action. 

 Life is thus nothing more nor less than the manifestation of properties pecul- 

 iar to certain definite electronic groupings as represented by certain molecu- 

 les. Living things appeared at the precise moment when the electronic act- 

 ivity represented by the appropriate atomic grouping in the molecules was 

 such that it could be designated by the term life. When man shall have ac- 

 quired the abiUty to imitate this grouping he will then have developed 

 a living thing. Life is thus nothing more nor less than a problem in 

 physical science. 



The physicist tells us that the disintegrating radium atom breaks up 

 into free electrons manifest as beta rays, and perhaps into free or compara- 

 tively free positive nuclei and that some of these disrupted atomic con- 

 stituents are again rearranged or recombined into new atoms of helium 

 represented by the alpha rays. What starts the radium atom on its un- 

 alterable explosive disintegrating course? It is assumed that under cer- 

 tain conditions, perhaps, occasioned by the change in the orbital position 

 and rotation of the negative electrons about the positive nucleus, due 

 to the mutual repulsion of the electrons, there is a sudden explosion of the 

 atom and the electrons are shot off into space. These free electrons 

 moving at a speed approximating that of light and obeying the laws of 

 "falhng" bodies, mayagain reform in orbits about a free or comparatively 

 free positive nucleus, perhaps a nucleus from which they have just been 

 shot forth, but the new atomic orbital grouping of the electrons is now 

 entirely different, resulting in the formation of a new atom. Only the 

 dying (disintegrating) atoms make the formation of new atoms possible, 

 for as far as we know at the present time, no new matter is added to the 

 universe nor is there any destroyed (annihilated) or taken therefrom. 



