436 Molecular Motion. "October, 



guides and directs the energy. So far as the form of the 

 house is concerned, it is a matter of indifference whether 

 the bricks are conveyed on the backs of labourers or trans- 

 ported by a steam-crane. In like manner, in accounting 

 for organic forms, we must exhibit not the mere energy 

 which moves the molecules, but that which directs and 

 guides the energy. 



But it has been already proved that energy cannot be 

 determined by energy : consequently that which determines 

 energy is not itself an energy. Therefore the thing which 

 we are in search of, which accounts for the order and 

 arrangement prevailing in the molecular movements in 

 nature, is a something not of the nature of a force or an 

 energy. 



The question now to be considered is, Can this marvellous 

 adjustment of molecular motions be explained by any thing 

 which is found within the domains of chemistry and physics ? 

 The advocates of the physical theory must afford us some 

 explanation of the cause of the determination of molecular 

 motion derived from physics and chemistry, if their theory 

 in reality rests upon a true foundation. 



Energy, chemical and physical, accounts for molecular 

 motions in organic nature ; but how is it to account for the 

 determination of those motions ? If the determinations of 

 molecular motion are to be attributed to these energies, it 

 must be to their modes of operation — the way in which the 

 energies are exerted — and not to the mere exertion itself. 

 Suppose that the determinations of molecular motion could 

 be accounted for from the known modes of the operation of 

 physical energies. The ultimate problem would then be, 

 What is it that determines those modes of operation ? In 

 other words, the problem would resolve itself into this, viz., 

 What is the cause of the determination of physical energies? 

 What is it that directs the operation of those energies? 



Molecular physics has made great advance of late years ; 

 but it has not made much advance in that particular direc- 

 tion which can be of service in explaining how molecular 

 motion in organic nature is determined. It is thought, 

 however, by the advocates of the physical school that 

 although at present we are unable to explain how organic 

 nature can be built up by the play of the ordinary chemical 

 and physical forces, yet at some future day, when we shall 

 have come to know far more of molecular physics than we 

 do at present, then we may be able to explain the mystery. 

 This is the cherished hope of modern evolutionists, and 

 of the advocates of the physical theory of life. But it is a 



