THE INFINITE SMALLNESS OF MATTER.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 18, Issue 31, 16 April 1907, Page 2

THE INFINITE SMALLNESS OF MATTER.

By the term molecule the smallest possible particle of a chemical substance is understood. For example, K a piece of cane sugar is broken into smaller and smaller fragments, a point is finally reached beyond which the subdivision cannot lx;"carried without producing something different from cane sugar. At this point we have reached the canesugar molecule.

Now, molecules are composed of atoms, which are the smallest possible particles of the chemical elements, and the dimensions of molecules vary greatly according to the number and character of the atoms of which they consist. The hydrogen molecule is a very small one, for it is composed of only two atoms of hydrogen. The molecule of cane sugar is comparatively large, containing 12 atoms of carbon, 22 of hydrogen and 11 of oxygen. But there are molecules of much greater size, The molecule of albumen is believed to contain nearly 1,000 atoms The subdivision of a lump of sugar described above, is purely imaginary, but many substances can be so divided very easily by dissolving them in water or some other liquid. In solution they are resolved either into separate molecules, as in the case of cane-sugar, or into larger or smaller groups of molecules. In the case of substances with very complex molecules, especially, it must not be supposed that all the particles in the solution are equal in size ; on the contrary, there are many reasons for believing that the groups of molecules are in various stages of disintegration.

The "ultra (or extreme power) microscope," invented by Siedcntopf and Zsigrnondy, has made it possible to detect, in a solution, solid particles of a diameter of 4 millionths of a millimeter (a millimeter is between l/20th and l/30th of an inch). (The limit of the best microscopes is 7f> times as great, or 3 ten-thousandths of a millimeter.) This now optical instrument has brought the largest molecules, such as those of albumen and soluble starch, into the realm of visibility, If one of the largest of molecules, that of soluble starch, could be actually magnified 10,000 times in every direction, so that its volume would be multiplied 1,000,000.000 times, it would still be smaller than a pea. One of the five million corpuscles which are contained in a cubic centimeter (between } and one-third of an inch) of blood would, if enlarged in the same proportion, fill a large room, for its diameter would measure six metres.