638 
THE CONSTITUTION OF MATTER. 
Bat what my companion replied, and in what loftier, or, at least, in what 
wilder, flights of imagination he indulged during the remainder of our walk,— 
this must be postponed to a future opportunity. 
THE CONSTITUTION OF MATTER. 
A “ Provincial Atom" has taken exception to certain expressions made use of 
in a paper of mine, which has recently appeared in this Journal. Since his ob¬ 
jections compel me to appear once more in print upon the same question, I must 
in the first place express the obligation I am under to him for the clever epitome 
of that paper he has been at the pains to elaborate, and for the additional inter¬ 
est communicated to the dissertation which standing alone it would scarcely 
have presented. 
My design was not so presumptuous as the serious enunciation of a new theory 
would amount to, but in the first place, and chiefly, to offer to the readers of 
the ‘ Pharmaceutical Journal 1 a connected view of the whole facts of the case; 
and secondly, to indicate my dissent from the views recently expounded by the 
President of the Chemical Society, in a lecture which has since been published. 
I desire to be as brief as possible, and therefore proceed to enumerate those 
points upon which I must confess my opinion unaffected by the arguments of 
my critic. 
I must first observe that Provincial Atom seems much concerned for the fate 
of chemistry, which he seems to think hangs on that of the so-called atomic 
theory. But let me assure him that when it comes to be offered seriously as a 
probable representation of the real constitution of the material universe, che¬ 
mists will have nothing to say to it, aud, except perhaps the few who are inclined 
to be bigoted, will and do prefer to accept it, solely in the character of a figure 
symbolizing something intelligible only by means of some such theory. The 
hypothesis of physical atoms gives us assistance in the explanation and grouping 
of certain facts, and puts them in a form easily adapted to mental manipulation, 
but if you ask me if I believe in the existence of atoms as usually described, I 
must reply, that as a chemist, I cannot acknowledge that I do, inasmuch as che¬ 
mistry alone throws no light upon the subject. 
Provincial Atom views the questions now under discussion more particularly 
in their metaphysical aspect than I have ventured to do; but I would ask him 
also to study the aspect which is chiefly offered to the contemplation of chemists. 
I am sure he cannot have done so, or he would never have pronounced so deci¬ 
dedly that “ chemistry is a science of precision, of a precision cognate, if not 
equal, to the precision of mathematics.” The contrary is just the case, as things 
at present stand. That precision is capable of being introduced into chemistry 
I do not doubt, but the day when that precision is to be attained is yet far dis¬ 
tant ; at any rate, when it may be said of the science as a whole, that it is in 
any way to be compared with mathematics. But Provincial Atom admits this; 
for he says in his second communication, “it is evident that chemistry is still in 
its childhood, and that as yet, we have struggled but a very short distance be¬ 
yond the threshold of the science.” 
I would humbly submit that I employ the term ‘ matter’ in the sense in which 
it is employed generally by physicists.* The distinction between matter and 
body is a purely metaphysical distinction. In chemistry the ideas cannot be 
. * The following is a quotation from one of the educational works of a well-known mathema¬ 
tician, Mr. Todhunter :—“Body or Matter is anything extended and possessing the power, of 
resisting the action of force.” I merely wish to show that I am not singular in using the 
terms almost as synonyms.” 
