156 
TOPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
inch, when the whole log vibrates, the total quantity of motion 
is enormous, because the small motion of each particle is 
multiplied by millions and millions — that is, by all the particles 
the log contains. 
Among the complex substances which chemists are acquainted 
with, no one could be named more important to organic life 
than albumen, which we all know in the condition of white of 
egg ; and its remarkable powers of utility in the growth and 
development of plants and animals depends upon its extremely 
complicated structure. It contains a multitude of atoms of 
carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulphur. It is usually 
found slightly alkaline ; and some chemists, like Gerhardt, con- 
sider white of egg as a definite compound of an albumen acid 
with sodic hydrate, and believe other sorts of albumen have an 
analagous composition. Omitting, however, the alkali, Mr. 
Sorby takes as a probable composition of albumen C 72 , H 112 , 
N 18 , S0 22 ; the letters representing the substance above 
named, and the figures the number of atoms which they 
contribute to the structure. With this view of albumen he 
finds that in a cubic 1 J^th of inch of horn there are about 
71,000,000,000,000 molecules of albumen. A molecule of this 
substance, though much larger than one of water, is far re- 
moved by its minuteness from any possibility of human vision ; 
and as Mr. Sorby explains in his paper, light is too coarse a 
medium to enable them to be seen, even if we could add 
sufficiently to the powers of our microscopes. 
When so many atoms of various substances are built up 
together to form a new substance, there is reason to believe that 
they are arranged in groups, each group having a definite con- 
stitution, and being a distinct entity, at the same time that it 
has an appointed place and a definite relation to the whole. 
Each group may be regarded as a system in which the atoms 
composing it are in ceaseless motion, exerting force upon their 
neighbours, and keeping within certain bounds, just as the 
planets do that circle round the sun. Each group acts as a 
whole upon other groups, and thus there are motions of groups 
as well as motions of atoms, subject to the same conditions of 
keeping within bounds. 
Now, it is evident that the wave forces of which we have 
spoken have great opportunities of effecting changes in such 
complex structures. One form or mode of wave motion may 
strike with its myriad pulsations at a group of atoms, another 
may strike at certain atoms in the group, and by such means 
some atoms or groups may be thrown out of their courses, and 
then the rest may form a new pattern, or, if suitable atoms of 
another sort are at hand, may take them in to what may be 
called their social system, and modify it accordingly. 
