Atomic, Atomical

Pertaining to, or consisting of atoms; extremely minute. Atomically, adv. In an atomical manner; in accordance with the atomic philosophy. Atom'ic Philosophy. Leu cippus, a philosopher of Abdera, who flourished about 450 в. 0., is generally regarded as the original propounder of what has been called the Atomic Philosophy . It was adopted by Demo crit us, in his Cosmogony , and afterwards by Epicurus, to whom its celebrity is chiefly owing. The following account of this doctrine is taken from Dr. Good's Book of Nature, and is a clear and concise sketch of the theory contained in the writings of Epicurus and his followers:-"The A. P. of Epicurus, in its mere physical contemplation, allows of nothing but matter and space, which are equally infinite and unbounded, which have equally existed from all eternity, and from different combinations of which every visible form is created. These elementary principles have no common property with each other; for whatever matter is, that space is the reverse of; and whatever space is, matter is the contrary to. The actually solid parts of all bodies, therefore, are matter; their actual pores, space; and the parts which are not altogether solid, but an intermixture of solidity and pore, are space and matter combined. Anterior to the formation of the universe, space and matter existed uncombined, or in their pure and elementary state. Space, in its elementary state, is absolute and perfect void; matter, in its elementary state, consists of inconceivably minute seeds or atoms so small that the corpuscles of vapor, light, and heat are compounds of them; and so solid that they cannot po ibly be broken or abraded by any concu ion or violence whatever. Every atom is po e ed of certain intrinsic powers of motion. Under the old school of Demo crit us, the perpetual motions hence produced were of two kinds: a descending motion, from the natural gravity of the atoms; and a rebounding motion, from collision and mutual clash. Besides these two motions, Epicurus supposed that some atoms were occasionally po e ed of a third, by which, in some very small degree, they descended in an oblique or curvilinear direction, in this respect resembling the oscillations of the magnetic needle. These infinite groups of atoms, flying through all time and space in different directions, and under different laws, have interchangeably tried and exhibited every po ible mode of rencontre, sometimes repelled from each other by a concu ion, and sometimes adhering to each other from their own jagged or pointed construction, or from the casual interstices which two or more connected atoms must produce, and which may be just adapted to those of other figures, as globalar, oval, or square. Hence the origin of compound and visible bodies; hence the origin of large ma es of matter; hence, eventually, the origin of the world itself. When these primary atoms are closely compacted, and but little vacuity or space lies between, they produce those kinds of substances which we denominate solids, as stones and metals; when they are loose and disjointed, and a large quantity of space or vacuity is interposed, they exhibit bodies of lax texture, as wool, water, and vapor. The world, thus generated, is perpetually sustained by the application of fresh tides of elementary atoms, flying with inconceivable rapidity through all the infinity of space, invisible from their minutene , and occupying the places of those that are as perpetually flying off. Yet nothing is eternal or immutable but these elementary seeds or atoms themselves. The compound forms of matter are continually decomposing and di olving into their original corpuscles. The world itself is a compound, though not an organized being; sustained and nourished, like organized beings, from the material pabulum that floats through the void of infinity. The world itself must, therefore, in the same manner, perish; it had a beginning, and it will have an end. Its present crasis will be decompounded; it will return to its original, its elementary atoms, and newl worlds will arise from its destruction. Space is infinite, material atoms are infinite, but the world is not infinite. This, then, is not the only world, nor the only material system, that exists. The cause that has produced this visible system is competent to produce others; it has been acting perpetually from all eternity, and there are other worlds and other systems of worlds existing around us." - During the most flourishing periods of the Greek philosophy, this doctrine of matter consisting of an a emblage of indivisible particles seems to have kept its ground under various modifications; the idea of one elementary matter deriving its form and properties from the shape and union of the particles composing it, is a simplification of the doctrine of Anaxagoras. 1