“Common alike to water and to carbon dioxide is the component oxygen. And the oxygen disengaged by the analysis of water has the same properties as the oxygen disengaged by the analysis of carbon dioxide. It does not follow, however, that prior to this disengagement by analysis, the atom of oxygen engaged in the transactions of a molecule of water is in all respects the same as an atom of oxygen engaged in the transactions of a molecule of carbon dioxide. The organization of the one molecule differs from that of the other. They are different ‘organisms’ in Professor Whitehead’s extended usage of this word.

There has been much discussion as to the acceptance or rejection of this extended usage, under which a molecule or atom as well as an oak tree, a rabbit, or an ameba, may be spoken of and discussed as an organism, though of course not a living organism. I am one of those who accept this extended usage. Of these terms the molecule, as an organism, is a community of atoms, as members in molecular fellowship.”