The molecular changes wrought by light in animals, are but of secondary moment. There is the darkening of the skin that follows exposure to the sun's rays. There are those alterations in the retina which cause in us sensations of colours. And on certain eyeless creatures that are semi- transparent, tbe light permeating their substance works some effect evinced by movement. But speaking generally, the opacity of animals limits the action of light to their surfaces; and so renders its direct physiological influence but small.* On plants, however, the solar rays that produce in us the impression of yellow, are the immediate agents of those molecular changes through which are hourly accumulated the materials for further growth. Experiments have shown that when the sun shines on living leaves, they begin to exhale oxygen and to accumulate carbon and hydrogen — results which are traced to the decomposition by the solar rays, of the carbonic acid and water absorbed. It is now an accepted conclusion that, by the help of certain * The increase of respiration found to result from the presence. of light, is probably an indirect, effect. It is most likely due to the reception of more vivid impressions through the eyes, and to the consequent nervous stimulation.
'illE ACTIONS OF FOllCKS ON ORGANIC MATTER. 20 classes of the ethereal undulations penetrating their leaves, plants are enabled to separate from the associated oxygen, those two elements of which their tissues are chiefly built This transformation of ethereal undulations into certain molecular re-arrangements of an unstable kind, on the over- throw of which the stored-up forces are liberated in new forms, is a process that underlies all organic phenomena. It will therefore be well, if we pause a moment to consider whe- ther any proximate interpretation of it is possible. Certain recent researches in molecular physics, give us some clue to its nature.
The elements of the problem are these: — The atoms of several ponderable matters exist in combination: those that are combined having strong affinities, but having also affin- ities less strong for some of the surrounding atoms that arc otherwise combined. The atoms thus united, and thus mixed among others with which they are capable of uniting, are exposed to the undulations of a medium that is relatively so rare as to seem imponderable. These undulations are of numerous kinds: they differ greatly in their lengths, or in the frequency with which they recur at any given point. And under the influence of undulations of a certain frequency, some of these atoms are transferred from atoms for which they have a stronger aflinity, to atoms for which they have a weaker affinity. That is to say, particular orders of waves of a rela- tively imponderable matter, remove particular atoms of pon- derable matter from their attachments, and carry them within reach of other attachments. Now the discoveries of Bunsen and Kirchoif respecting the absorption of particular luminiferous undulations by the vapours of particular sub- stances, joined with Prof. Tyndall's discoveries respecting the absorption of heat by gases, show very clearly that the atoms of each substance have a rate of vibration in harmony with ethereal waves of a certain length, or rapidity of recur- rence. Every special kind of atom can be made to oscillate 30 THE DATA OF BIOLOGY.
by a special order of ethereal waves, which are absorbed in producing its oscillations; and can by its oscillations generate this same order of ethereal waves. Whence it appears that immense as is the difference in density between ether and ponderable matter, the waves of the one can set the atoms of the other in motion, when the successive impacts of the waves are so timed as to correspond with the oscillations of the atoms. The effects of the waves are, in such case, cumula- tive; and each atom gradually acquires a momentum made up of countless infinitesimal momenta. Note further, that unless the members of a chemically-compound atom are so bound up as to be incapable of any relative movements (a supposition at variance with the conceptions of modern science) we must conceive them as severally able to vibrate in unison or harmony with those same classes of ethereal waves that affect them in their uncombined states. While the compound atom as a whole, will have some new rate of oscillation de- termined by its attributes as a whole; its components will retain their original rates of oscillation, subject only to modifi- cations by mutual influence. Such being the cir- cumstances of the case, we may partially understand how the sun's raj^s can effect chemical decompositions. If the members of a binary atom stand so related to the undulations falling on them, that one is thrown into a state of increased oscillation and the other not; it is manifest that there must arise a tendency towards the dislocation of the two — a tendency which may or may not take effect, according to the weakness or strength of their union, and according to the presence or absence of collateral affinities. This inference is in harmony with several significant facts. Dr Draper remarks that " among metallic substances (compounds) those first detected to be changed by light, such as silver, gold, mercury, lead, have all high atomic weights; and such as sodium and potassium, the atomic weights of which are low, appeared to be less changeable.'' As here interpreted, the fact specified amounts to this; that the compounds most THE ACTIONS OF FORCES ON ORGANIC MATTER. 31 readily decomposed by light, are those in wliich there is a marked contrast between the atomic weights of the constituents, and probably therefore a marked contrast between the rapidities of their vibrations. The circumstance, too, that different chemical compounds are decomposed or modified in different parts of the spectrum, implies that there is a relation between special orders of undulations and special orders of composite atoms — doubtless a correspondence between the rates of these undulations and the rates of oscillation which some of the components of such atoms will assume. Strong confirmation of this view may be drawn from the decomposing actions of those longer ethereal waves which we perceive as heat. On contemplating the whole series of binary compounds, we see that the ele- ments which are most remote in their atomic weights, as hj^drogen and the noble metals, will not combine at all: their vibrations are so unlike that they cannot keep together under any conditions of temperature. If again we look at a smaller group, as the metallic oxides, we see that whereas those metals that have atoms nearest in weight to the atoms of oxygen, cannot be separated from oxygen by heat, even when it is joined by a powerful collateral affinity; those metals which differ more widel}^ from oxj^gen in their atomic weights, can be de-oxidized by carbon at high temperatures; and those which differ from it most widely, combine with it very reluctantly, and yield it up if exposed to thermal undu- lations of moderate intensit}^. And here indeed, remem- bering the relations among the atomic weights in the two cases, may we not suspect a close analogy between the de- oxidation of a metallic oxide by carbon under the influence of the longer ethereal waves, and the de-carbonization of carbonic acid by hydrogen under the influence of the shorter ethereal waves?
These conceptions help us to some dim notion of the mode in which changes are wrought by light in the leaves of plants. Among the several elements concerned, there are wide differ- 32 THE DATA OF BIOLOGY.
ences in molecular mobility, and probably in the rates of molecular vibration. Each is combined with one of the others • but is capable of forming various combinations with the rest. And they are severally in presence of a complex compound into which they all enter, and which is ready to assimilate with itself the new compound atoms that they form. Certain of the ethereal waves falling on them when thus arranged, there results a detachment of some of the combined atoms and a union of the rest. And the conclusion suo:o:ested is, that the induced vibrations among the various atoms as at first arranged, are so incongruous as to produce instability; and to give collateral affinities the power to work a re- iirrangement, which, though less stable under other conditions, is more stable in the presence of these particular undula- tions. There seems, indeed, no choice but to conceive the matter thus. An atom united with one for which it has a strong affinity, has to be transferred to another for which it has a weaker affinity. This transfer implies motion. The motion is given by the waves of a medium that is relatively imponderable. Xo one wave of this imponderable medium can give the requisite motion to.this atom of ponderable matter: especially as the atom is held by a positive force besides its inertia. The motion required can hence be given only by successive waves; and that these may not destroy each other's effects, it is needful that each shall strike the atom just when it has completed that recoil produced by the impact of previous ones. That is, the ethereal undulations must coincide in rate with the oscillations of the atom, determined by its inertia and the forces acting on it. It is also requisite that the rate of oscillation of the atom to be detached, shall differ from that of the atom with which it is united; since if the two oscillated in unison, the ethereal waves would not tend to separate them. And, finally, the successive impacts of the ethereal waves must be accumulated, until the resulting oscillations have become so wide in their sweep as greatly to weaken the cohesion of the united atoms, at the same time THE ACTIONS OF FORCES ON ORGANIC MATTER. 33 tliat they brini^ one of them wltliin reach of other atoms with which it will combine. In this way only does it seem possible for such a force to produce such a transfer. Moreover, while we are thus enabled to conceive how light may work these molecular changes; we also gain an insight into the method by which the insensible motions propagated to us from the sun, are treasured up in such way as afterwards to generate sensible motions. By the accumulation of in- finitesimal impacts, atoms of ponderable matter are made to oscillate. The quantity of motion which each of them eventually acquires, effects its transfer to a position of un- stable equilibrium, from which it can afterwards be readily dislodged. And when so dislodged, along with other atoms similarly and simultaneously affected, there is suddenly given out all the motion which had been before impressed on it.
Speculation aside, however, that which it concerns us to notice, is the broad fact that light is an all-important agent of molecular changes in organic substances. It is not here necessary for us to ascertain how light produces these compo- sitions and decompositions: it is necessary only for us to observe that it does produce them. That the characteristic matter called chlorophyll, which gives the green colour to leaves, makes its appearance whenever the blanched shoots of plants are exposed to the sun; that the petals of 'flowers, uncoloured while in the bud, acquire their bright tints as they unfold; and that on the outer surfaces of animals, analogous changes are induced; are wide inductions which are enough for our present purpose.
§ 14. We come next to the agency of chief importance among those that work changes in organic matter; namely, chemical affinity. How^ readily vegetal and animal substances are modified by other substances put in contact with them, we see daily illustrated. Besides the many compounds which cause the death of an organism into which they are put, we have -the much greater number of compounds which work 3 34 THE DATA OF BIOLOGY.
those milder effects termed medicinal — effects implying, like the others, molecular re-arrangements. Indeed, nearly all soluble chemical compounds, natural and artificial, produce, when taken into the body, alterations that are more or less conspicuous in their results.
After what was shown in the last chapter, it will be mani- fest that this extreme modifiabllity of organic matter by chemical agencies, is the chief cause of that active molecular re-arrangement which organisms, and especially animal or- ganisms, display. In the two fundamental functions of nutrition and respiration, we have the means by which the supply of materials for this active molecular re-arrangement is maintained.
Thus the process of animal nutrition consists in the absorp- tion, partly of those complex substances that are thus highly capable of being chemically altered, and partly in the absorp- tion of simpler substances capable of chemically altering them. The tissues always contain small quantities of alka- line and earthy salts, which enter the system in one form and are excreted in another. Though we do not know spe- cifically the parts which these salts play, yet from their universal presence, and from the transformations which they undergo in the body, it may be safely inferred that their chemical affinities are instrumental in working some of the metamorphoses ever going on.
The inorganic substance, however, on which mainly depend these metamorphoses in organic matter, is not swallowed along with the solid and liquid food, but is absorbed from the surrounding medium — air or water, as the case may be. Whether the oxygen taken in, either, as by the lowest animals, through the general surface, or, as by the higher animals, through respiratory organs, is the immediate cause of those molecular changes that are ever going on through- out the living tissues; or whether the oxygen, playing the part of scavenger, merely aids these changes by carrying away the products of decompositions otherwise caused; it THE ACTIONS or FORCES ON ORGANIC MATTER. 35 equally remains true, that these changes are maintained by its instrumentality. Whether the oxygen absorbed and diffused through the system, effects a direct oxidation of the organic colloids which it permeates; or whether it first leads to the formation of simpler and more oxidized compounds, that are afterwards further oxidized and reduced to still simpler forms; matters not, in so far as the general result is concerned. In any case it holds good, that the substances of which the animal body is built up, enter it in a but slightly oxidized and highly unstable state; while the great mass of them leave it in a fully oxidized and stable state. It follows, therefore, that whatever the special changes gone through, the general process is a falling from a state of un- stable chemical equilibrium, to a state of stable chemical equilibrium. AYhether this process be direct or indirect, the total molecular re -arrangement and the total motion given out in effecting it, must be the same.
§ 15. There is another species of re- distribution among the component units of organisms, which is not immediately effected by the affinities of the units concerned, but is me- diately effected by other affinities; and there is reason to think that the re-distribution thus caused, is important in amount, if not indeed the most important. In ordinary cases of chemical action, the two or more substances concerned, themselves undergo changes of m.olecular arrangement; and the changes are confined to the substances themselves. But there are other cases in which the chemical action going on, does not end with the substances at first concerned; but sets going chemical actions, or changes of molecular arrangement, among surrounding substances that would else remain qui- escent. And there are yet further cases in which mere contact with a substance that is itself quiescent, will cause other substances to undergo rapid metamorphoses. In what we call fermentation, the first species of this communi- cated chemical action is exemplified. One part of yeast, 36 THE DATA OF BIOLOGY.
while itself undergoing molecular changes, will convert 100 parts of sugar into alcohol and carbonic acid; and during its own decomposition, one part of diastase *' is able to eiFect the transformation of more than 1000 times its weight of starch into sugar." As illustrations of the second species, may be mentioned those changes which are suddenly produced in many colloids by minute portions of various substances added to them — substances that are not undergoing any manifest transformation, and suffer no appreciable effect from the contact. The nature of the first of these two kinds of communicated molecular change, which here chiefly concerns us, may be rudely represented by certain, visible changes that are communicated from mass to mass, when a series of masses has been arranged in a special way. The simplest example is that furnished by the child's play of setting bricks on end in a row, in such positions that when the first is overthrown it overthrows the second; the second, the third; the third, the fourth; and so on to the end of the row. Here we have a number of units severally placed in unstable equilibrium, and in such relative positions that each, while falling into a state of stable equilibrium, gives an im- pulse to the next, sufficient to make the next, also, fall from unstable to stable equilibrium. Now since among mingled compound atoms, no one can undergo change in the arrange- ment of its parts without a molecular motion that must cause some disturbance all around; and since an adjacent atom disturbed by this communicated motion, may have the arrange- ment of its constituent molecules altered, if it is not a stable arrangement; and since we know, both that the atoms which are changed by this so-called catalysis are unstable, and that the atoms resulting from their change are more stable; it seems probable that the transformation is really analogous, in principle, to the familiar one named. Whether thus interpretable or not, however, there is groat reason for think- ing that to this kind of action, is due a large amount of vi(al THE ACTIONS OF FORCES ON ORGANIC MATTER. 37 metamorpliosis. Let us contemplate tlic several groups of facts which point to this conclusion.
In the last cha2:)tcr (^ 2) we incidentally noted the extreme instability of nitrogenous compounds in general. AV^e saw til at sundry of them are liable to explode on the slightest incentive — sometimes without any apparent cause; and that of the rest, the great majority are very easily decomposed by heat, and by other substances. We shall perceive much significance in this general characteristic, when we join it with the fact, that the substances capable of initiating extensive molecular changes in the manner above described, are all nitrogenous ones. Yeast consists of vegetal cells containing nitrogen, — cells that grow by assimilating the nitrogenous matter contained in wort. Similarly, the " vinegar-plant/' Avhich so greatly facilitates the formation of acetic acid from alcohol, is a fungoid growth, that is doubtless, like others of its class, rich in nitrogenous compounds. Diastase, by which the transformation of starch into sugar is effected, during the process of malting, is also a nitrogenous body. So too is a substance called synaptase — an albumenous principle contained in almonds, that has the power of working several metamorphoses in the matters associated with it. These nitrogenized compounds, like the rest of their family, are remarkable for the rapidity with which they decompose; and the extensive changes produced by them in the accompanying oxy-hydro- carbons, are found to vary in their kinds accord- ing as the decompositions of the ferments vary in their stages. We have next to note, as having here a meaning for us, the chemical contrasts between those organ- isms which carry on their functions by the help of external forces, and those which carry on their functions by forces evolved from within. If we compare animals and plants, we see that whereas plants, characterized as a class by containirig but little nitrogen, are dependent on the solar rays for their vital activities; animals, the vital activities of which are not 38 THE DATA OF BIOLOGY.
thus dependent, mainly consist of nitrogenous substances. There is one marked exception to this broad distinction, how- ever; and this exception is specially instructive. Among plants, there is a considerable group — the Fungi — many mem- bers of which, if not all, can live and grow in the dark; and it is their peculiarity that they are very much more nitro- genous than other plants. Yet a third class of facts of like significance, is disclosed when we compare different portions of the same organisms. The seed of a plant contains nitrogenous substance in a far higher ratio than the rest of the plant; and the seed differs from the rest of the plant in its ability to initiate, in the absence of light, extensive vital changes — the changes constituting germination. Similarly in the bodies of animals, those parts which carry on active functions are nitrogenous; while parts that are non-nitro- genous— as the deposits of fat — carry on no active functions. And we even find that the appearance of non-nitrogenous matter, throughout tissues normally composed almost wholly of nitrogenous matter, is accompanied by loss of activity: what is called fatty degeneration, being the concomitant of failing vitality. One more fact which serves to make still clearer the meaning of the foregoing ones, still remains — the fact, namely, that in no part of any organism where vital changes are going on, is nitrogenous matter wholly absent. It is common to speak of plants — or at least all parts of plants but the seeds — as non-nitrogenous. But they are only relatively so; not absolutely. The quantity of albumenoid substance contained in the tissues of plants, is extremely small compared with the quantity contained in the tissues of ani- mals; but all plant- tissues which are discharging active functions, contain some albumenoid substance. In every living vegetal cell there is a certain part that contains nitro- gen. This part initiates those changes which constitute the development of the cell. And if it cannot be said that the primordial utricle, as this nitrogenous part is called, is the worker of all subsequent changes undergone by the cell, it THE ACTIONS OF FORCES ON ORGANIC MATTER. 39 nevertheless continues to be the part in which the independent activity is most marked.
Looking at the evidence thus brought together, do we not get an insight into the part played by nitrogenous matter in organic changes? We see that nitrogenous com- pounds in general, are extremely prone to decompose: their decomposition often involving a sudden and great evolution of force. We see that the substances classed as ferments, which, during their own molecular changes, set up molecular changes in the accompanying oxy-hydro- carbons, are all nitrogenous. We see that among classes of organisms, and among the parts of each organism, there is a relation between the amount of nitrogenous matter present and the amount of independent activity. And we see that even in organisms and parts of organisms where the activity is least, such changes as do take place are initiated by a substance contain- ing nitrogen. Does it not seem probable, then, that these extremely unstable compounds, have everywhere the effect of communicating to the less unstable compounds associated with them, molecular movements towards a stable state, like those they are themselves undergoing? The changes which we thus suppose nitrogenous matter to produce in a body, are clearly analogous to those which we see it produce out of the body. Out of the body, certain oxy-hydro-carbons in con- tinued contact with nitrogenous matter, are transformed into carbonic acid and alcohol, and unless prevented the alcohol is transformed into acetic acid; the substances formed being thus more highly oxidized and more stable than the substances destroyed. In the body, these same oxy-hydro-carbons together with some hydro- carbons, in continued contact with nitrogenous matter, are transformed into carbonic acid and water: substances which are also more highly oxidized and more stable than those from which they result. And since acetic acid is itself resolved by further oxidation into carbonic acid and water; we see that the chief difference between the two cases, is, that the process is more completely effected in the