Life and matter : a criticism of Professor Haeckel's "Riddle of the universe" / by Sir Oliver Lodge.

Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Life and matter : a criticism of Professor Haeckel's "Riddle of the universe" / by Sir Oliver Lodge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    or geometrically closed boundary, is to pass matter in or out through the walls. This law has been called the sheet-anchor of chemistry, but it is very far from being self-evident ; and its statement involves the finding of a property of matter which experimentally shall remain unchanged, although nearly every other property is modified. To superficial observation noth- ing is easier than to destroy matter. When liquid—when dew, for instance—evaporates, it seems to disappear, and when a manu- script is burnt it is certainly destroyed ; but it turns out that there is something which may be called the vapour of water, or the matter of the letter, which still persists, though it has taken rarer form and become unrecognisable. Ultimately, in order to express the persistence of the permanent abstraction called matter clearly, it is necessary to speak of the ultimate atoms of which it is composed, and to say that though these may enter into various com- binations, and thereby display many out-