Q. E. D. | Page 3

too, it is more than doubtful if any purely academic
body could be found willing to become responsible for giving to the
world conclusions so contrary to the vogue of the present day.
That these brief chapters may clear up the doubts of some, and
encourage the faith of many, is the object of their publication in this
non-professional form.
G. McC. P.

Contents
I. MATTER AND ITS ORIGIN 15 II. THE ORIGIN OF ENERGY 31
III. LIFE ONLY FROM LIFE 43 IV. THE CELL AND THE
LESSONS IT TEACHES 57 V. WHAT IS A "SPECIES"? 68 VI.
MENDELISM AND THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 78 VII. GEOLOGY
AND ITS LESSONS 99 VIII. CREATION AND THE CREATOR 125

I
MATTER AND ITS ORIGIN
I
When we were told by a prominent scientist just the other day that
"electricity is now known to be molecular in structure," it almost took
our breath away. And when we were informed that certain well-known
chemical elements had been detected in the very act of being changed
over into other well-known elements, with the prospect of such a
transformation of the elements being quite the normal thing throughout
nature, the very earth seemed to be slipping away from under our feet.
Some of the closely related discoveries, such as the fact that the X-rays
show a spectrum susceptible of examination, were not so disconcerting
in themselves; but the marvellous pictures of the structure of the atom
elicited by these discoveries made many good people almost question
whether our venerable experimenters had not been indulging in pipe
dreams amid their laboratory work.
Do we, then, begin to understand the real composition of matter? Does
it have component parts, in the materialistic sense; or is what we call
matter only a mysterious manifestation of energy? And if the latter be
our answer, can we hope to settle the problem objectively and so
conclusively that it will stay settled? In short, do we, regarding these
border-line subjects between metaphysics and natural science, know
anything more than our fathers and our grandfathers?
It will be convenient to consider these problems under two heads: the
composition of matter, and the origin of matter.
II
1. It was long ago recognized that matter must be composed of particles
which are driven farther apart by heat and are brought closer together
by cold, thus laying the foundation for the theory of the molecular
composition of matter. But not until the time of Dalton, about a
hundred years ago, was it proved that the molecule itself, the unit of
physical change, is capable of definite division into atoms, the units of
chemical change. This conception of the molecules and atoms as the
ultimate units of which matter is composed maintained its place until
the discovery of radioactivity and its associated phenomena, about
1896; since which time we have definitely ascertained that even the
atoms are separable into still smaller units, and that possibly these units

are all alike. On this last possibility, it would surely be a most amazing
fact if such multitudinous "properties" of bodies could be produced
merely by variations in the arrangements of these ultimate units into
atoms, or in some other way which produces vast differences in
properties by combinations of units that are nevertheless mere
duplicates of one another.
As hydrogen is the lightest of the elements, it has been a favorite theory
with scientists that the various elements are all composed of
combinations of hydrogen atoms. But since many of the elements have
atomic weights which cannot be made exact multiples of that of
hydrogen, it has been felt that there must be some other smaller unit
than the hydrogen atom; or else that these hydrogen atoms themselves
change in weight when they combine to form other atoms. But mass
seems to be the one unchangeable characteristic of matter; hence it was
felt that any change of weight is almost unthinkable, and so a solution
was sought in the direction of still further dividing the hydrogen atom,
the smallest unit concerned in chemical change, as then understood.
But now the facts and principles brought to light in connection with the
studies of radioactivity have settled it that we actually do have a much
smaller unit than the hydrogen atom, one of only about 1/1760 its mass,
in fact; and that this smallest of the small things of nature is none other
than a particle of negative electricity, now called an electron.
That the atoms of all the elements must have a common unit of
composition, that they behave as if composed of ultimate particles that
may be regarded as duplicates of one another, has long been regarded
as an inevitable conclusion from the Periodic Law of Mendeleef. This
law says that the physical as well as the chemical properties