181 
the number of atoms in a cube of metal the size of a pin's head 
would be expressed by the following (or by the cube of 20 
millions), 8,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.* 
41. I will not follow further the deductions of this author, 
whose calculations may seem to some persons fanciful ; but 
his beautiful work U Architecture du Monde des Atvmes com- 
mends itself at once to those who have sufficient mental train- 
ing to follow his deductions. His merit has been appreciated 
in the highest scientific quarters in France. 
42. I may, then, safely draw my own inference, which is this : 
We have in the body of the small infusorial animalcule we 
have been considering a certain number of atoms, and these 
combined into molecules in conformity with certain well-known 
chemical affinities ; but we have also the evidence of another 
wholly different power acting upon the whole of these mole- 
cules, and not resulting from any properties in the molecules 
themselves. We may call this power (for argument's sake) 
life , and see that in virtue of this we have one individuality, 
one will, one centre of action, and one centre of reproduction, 
whether fissile or otherwise. We have, doubtless, growth, 
maturity , and decay, characteristics of organisation, but con- 
trary to all that is known of chemical combination. 
43. Moreover, we must bear in mind that we have in our 
small animalcule a Protozoon rather than a Protophyte, and 
that its movements are connected with seeking its food amidst 
the inconceivably more minute Protophyta who, like all plants, 
have the power of feeding upon and decomposing the molecules 
of inert matter. We have then, in their movements, the exer- 
cise of a will wholly opposed to the chemical actions we have 
been contemplating. No atom has ever the choice whether to 
* Dr. Thomson has shown that an atom of lead cannot exceed in weight 
the 3xo 000 000 000 a an( * that the sulphur united with it in the 
form of sulphuret could be no more than 
of the same. It 
2,01 5,000,000,000 
may also be proved that a square inch of gold is divisible into a million of 
parts visible through a common microscope : so that when the metal is re- 
duced to the thinness of leaf of — - ^ of a grain, it may be distinguished. 
Nor is this all, for a grain of gold of the thinness which it is on gilt silver 
wire will cover an area of 1,400 square miles : it follows that 
1,400,000,000 
of a grain may be seen through a common glass. Yet it is probable that 
even such a minute quantity comprehends a considerable number of atoms. — 
Daubeny, Atomic Theory, p. 272. 
VOL. XVII. 
O 
