_Divisibility_ is another quality of Matter; and when we attempt to show how far Matter can be divided, the brain refuses to grasp the infinity. A pin’s head is a small object, but it is gigantic compared to some animals, of which millions would occupy a space no larger than the head of a pin. These tiny animals must contain organs and veins, etc., and those veins are full of blood globules. Professor Tyndall informs us that a drop of blood contains three millions of red globules. So these infinitesimally small animals must have millions of globules in their blood also. Thus we see to what an extent, far beyond our Senses’ power to grasp, Matter can be divided.
But there is something even more astonishing than this. It is stated that there are more animals in the milt of a single codfish than there are men in the world; and that _one grain of sand is larger than four millions of these animals_! each of which must be possessed of life germs of an equal amount, which would grow up as it grew to maturity. This carries us back again, and
“Imagination’s utmost stretch In wonder dies away.”
Or take other interesting facts. One hundred threads of the silkworm must be placed side by side to make up the thickness of a line (—) about 1/25th of an inch; and metals can be drawn out to such exceeding fineness that twelve hundred of the fine wires will occupy only the space of one hundred silkworms’ threads, or one _millimetre_.
_Porosity_ is another attribute of Matter, for in all Matter there are pores, or spaces, between the particles. Sometimes such openings are plainly visible; in very “solid” bodies they are, to a great extent, indistinguishable. But we know that the spaces exist, because we can _compress_ the particles together.
_Inertia_ is also a general property of Matter, and the meaning of the term is “inactivity,” or passiveness—a want of power in an object to move, or when moving, to stop of itself. It will come to rest apparently by itself, but the resistance of the air and the friction of the ground, or the attraction of the earth, will really occasion the stoppage of the object. We will speak more fully of Inertia presently. Elasticity and Expansibility are evident in fluids and gases.