Infinitesimals Pro- Scientific ~noint By - J. K. Se UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES ROBERT ERNEST COWAN , ! ompli merits of the Author J PREFACE. TTTilOSE who read the daily papers last June will remember that * 1 two Homoeopathic physicians were appointed by the Mayor of the City of Oakland to fill vacancies which were supposed to exist in the Board of Health. Immediately on this announcement the Homoeo- paths, as a School of Medicine, were held up to ridicule in the "public press " by some of the Allopathic physicians. The attack was promptly met by myself and others, and a spirited " discussion," which was published in the Oakland Enquirer, was continued for some weeks. By one of the Allopaths it was asserted, with a great flourish ot trumpets^ "that there is absolutely no medicine in even the sixth dilution," which is frequently prescribed by Homoeopathic physi- cians. This statement was shown) at the time, to be incorrect, as the microscope had demonstrated that there were particles of gold to be seen in the twelfth dilution, and the spectroscope has shown that there is medicine in much higher potencies. On other lines Science has demonstrated that the mightiest forces in nature are the imponderables. As an example^ take electricity. No person at all acquainted with Science will claim that it is material that it is anything, in fact, but a product of the rotary motion of the molecules of matter, and yet it is capable of driving tifty-horse-power through a gimlet-hole. Who is there so puerile as to attempt to deny the presence and power of invisible things? That prejudice and bigotry will dwarf the human intellect was demon- strated by the '' discussion " to which reference has been made. The following paper was written as one of the series, but before it was ready for publication the editor of the Enquirer had closed his paper to the " discussion." Among other things, it suggests a new theory of disease, which is cleai'ly borne out by the discoveries of modern science. The doctrine that all physiological phenomena whatever can be accounted for without going beyond the bounds of physical and chemical science, is taught by the best informed scientists of the present day. It is claimed in this paper that disease is disturbed atomic and molecular motion. It has long been held that all physiological phe- nomena are the result of cell action ; and it is now known that the cell is what its contained atoms and molecules make it. Any change, therefore, in the motions of the molecules contained within the cells must, of course, change the results wrought out by cell action. It is evident, therefore, that if the normal movements of the molecules be disturbed, abnormal cell action or disease must be the result. This being true, it is evident that to restore the disturbed molecules of the cell to their normal movements, the remedy or medicine must be sufficiently minute to reach the cell, not only, but to penetrate to ihe contained molecules and atoms. This paper lias been read before three Scientific Societies and its publication urged. I have, therefore, concluded to give it to the public in its present form. J.- M SELFRIDUE, M. D. INFINITESIMALS . . FROM A . . J. M. SELFRIDGE, M. D. OAKLAND, CAL. Great interest has been manifested in the study of minute organ- isms ever since the microscope was first discovered, and from time to time, as improvements have been made in the magnifying powers of the instrument, new discoveries have been announced. About two decades ago great impetus was given in this direction by the discovery of those micro-fossils the diatoms. Their study and classification, although pursued more for amusement than for the advancement of science, was productive of good in this it stimu lated the makers of optical instruments to still more improve the magnifying powers of the microscope, until at the present time it may with truth be said we have reached, for practical work, the out-limit of the power to magnify. With this improvement in opti- cal instruments scientific investigation was greatly stimulated, and, as a result, great advancement in biological and histological knowl- edge has been made. One of the greatest triumphs of the modern microscope was the discovery and classification of those micro- organisms known as bacteria, some of them being so minute as to measure less than the one seventy-thousandth of an inch in diam- eter. To the human intellect this is inconceivably small, and yet in some instances these minute objects are armed with ciliary projec- tions which are so small that, after being magnified one hundred and sixty thousand times, they are scarcely visible. These micro- organisms are minute cells that contain protoplasm, ''a particularly complex chemical substance out of which all living things, animals and plants are formed." It is " made up of many atoms of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, with a small number of atoms of sulphur and phosphorus, more than a thousand of ihem in one molecule." Small though these microbes are, how ir.tinitely minute, must be the atoms of which they are composed when it takes a thousand of them to make one of the molecules of which they themselves are constructed. While there are seventy or more elements, and (i it appears that the individual atoms of each element are precisely alike," it does not follow that all molecules are of the same size. A molecule is made up of atoms chemically combined, and their size varies accord- ing to the number of atoms they contain. For example, a molecule of water is made up of three atoms two of hydrogen and one of oxygen, while " .1 molecule of alum contains about one hundred," and according to Mulder, a molecule of albumen contains nearly a thousand atoms; and, according to the same authority, the diameter of a molecule of alum would be equal to the one ten-million-seven hundred and seventy-six thousandth of an inch, while the diameter of a molecule of albumen would be the one five-millionth of an inch. The molecules of matter are exceedingly interesting objects for study, but they can only be studied in combination, for when set free the\ r develop a tremendous amount of energy, and the rapidity of their motions precludes the possibility of & single one being seen. For example, "a free molecule of hydrogen has a velocity of motion at ordinary temperatures of upwards of a mile in a second, and its direction of motion A changed millions of times in a second. There is every reason to believe that the molecules of all bodies are so perfectly transparent that they can no more be seen than the air, even if there were no difficulty from their small ness? and their motions. If the atoms of a single element like hydrogen are so minute, so restless and so transparent that no one can hope to see them so as to make out their forms and what gives them their characteristic properties, what shall be said of the case of seventy or more elements similarly minute and restless and transparent, yet each one easily identified in several ways, physical and chemical 1 " An atom is the chemist's unit, but " the term is not now under- stood to signify what is implied in its derivation, as something that cannot lie divided, only as something that has not yet been broken up into smaller fragments." Now, as Dolhear says, "Let it be granted chat atoms are in the neighborhood of the one fifty-millionth of an inch in diameter, then, if a thousand of them are organized into a molecule, its diameter would lie about the five-millionth of an inch." This being so, "a speck of protoplasm one ten-thousandth of an inch in diameter would require not less than five hundred such molecules in a row to span it ; and there would be no less than one hundred and twenty- five millions of such molecules in the small raass." As I have already said, some of the microorganisms are less than the one seventy-thousandth of an inch in diameter, and yet they eat, (by absorption) digest and excrete material substances, so minute that che human mind grows dizzy at the thought of attempt- ing to determine their dimensions. Minute though these objects are, they grow and multiply. This is done by what is called fission, or the cutting of themselves in halves or quarters. Now, for the sake of comparison, let us suppose that these minute objects are human beings. If thin were so, a million of them conld waltz on the point of the finest cambric needle. So far as science has been able to determine these- micro-organisms are the smallest of living beings, but, small as they are, they bear no comparison in point of minuteness to the infinitesimal particles into which matter can be divided But, before entering upon the study of the divisibility of matter, it will be of interest to inquire into what is meant by matter. Several attempts have been made to define it, hut it is more difficult co yive a brief definition than one might at first imagine. " What ever occupies space or whatever affects our senses" have been given as definitions, but, ; 'if we say that it is whatever occupies space," there may be any number of things in illimitable space that are not sub- ject to any of the physical laws of which we have any knowledge. " If we say whatever affects our senses, we are again going beyond our warrant, for electricity is capable of affecting several of our senses sight, taste, feeling and yet there is no good reason for thinking electricity to be matter." The best definition I have yet seen is given by Professor Do 1 bear in his work on " Matter, Eth'r and Motion." " Whatever possesses the property of gravitative attraction" is matter. From this definition il follows that th prin- 93165 8 ciples which Sir Isaac Newton and others applied to large masses of matter applies with equal force to the smallest atom. Our best microscopes have enabled us to see particles of matter the one- hondred-thousandth of an inch in diameter, and yet this inconceiv- ably minute particle is governed by the same laws as those that govern the earth, with a diameter of eight thousand miles, or the sun with its diameter of eight hundred thousand miles. Although the smallest visible thing seen with the microscope is the one-hundrod-thous o URL RENEWAL ID URL UlURL j, [J v OCT2 1981 D iliHMv JSs 1 ^mW* DEC 41981 ' REC'D LD-URL R 1 5 4 1975 Form L3- ui* AT LOS ANGEL T.TBRARY 'jt A 000006725 6_ 3 1158