A Theory oe Ferments and Their Action. 
25 
in a molecule could be increased by the corresponding vibrations of a 
second substance that, by mere contact with this substance, a disruption 
of the molecule of the first substance was brought about without the 
catalytic agent which induced the decomposition being itself affected.” 
Just how atomic and molecular vibrations develop specific ferment 
energy is not stated in Uaegelhs theory, but the failure to develop this 
feature is not the fault of the concept — that ferment action is in some 
way causatively associated with atomic and molecular vibrations — but 
rather to the author’s failure to carry this concept to its logical con- 
clusions. 
The modern theory of physical phenomena — the electron theory — 
may actually or potentially (since the electron theory is yet in its 
initial stage) contain the true explanation of the phenomena of fer- 
mentation. But I venture to assert that the electron theory will not 
disprove the concept, that the form of energy which structure gives to 
matter is derived from movements of the atoms within molecules, and 
until this is done I can see no existing cause for a serious conflict be- 
tween the electron and the biophysical theory. My reading leads me 
to believe that in substituting electro-magnetic waves of the modern 
theory of light for the mechanical ether waves of the undulatory theory 
of light, the important optical principles which were worked out by 
Young, Fresnet, and Foucault remain as true today as they were when 
the undulatory theory, of which these principles are products, was the 
theory of light that was almost universally accepted by men of science. 
Why, then, should substituting electro-magnetic waveg for mechanical 
ether waves, produced by atomic motions, disturb the conclusions of the 
biophysical theory in regard to the origin and nature of molecular 
energy, since the ether waves in both instances are caused by motions, 
of ponderable matter? 
When the electron theory is viewed from its distal end, it will be seen 
that all material substances are resolvable into systems of electrons; 
and as electrons have no material existence, since an electron is assumed 
to be nothing ' more than a local distortion, stress, or condition of the 
universal ether, and since the material nature of ether is itself ques- 
tioned, it will apparently be a difficult task for mortal man to construct 
a theory of ferments and their action out of a conception so extremely 
attenuated. But when the electron theory is viewed from the opposite 
direction, the problem appears more tangible. We then have atoms, 
molecules, and ether to deal with, and are not called upon to puzzle 
our brains in trying to reason out how something may be created out 
of nothing. 
The following summary of facts and conclusions, and, in some in- 
stances, the language of their expression, in regard to the electron 
