the constitution of the thing out of matters The transition of property into a matter or into a self subsistent stuff is the familiar transition performed on sensible matter by chemistry when it seeks to represent the properties of color, smell, etc., as luminous matter, coloring matter, odorific matter, sour, bitter matter and so on; or when it simply assumes others, like calorific matter, electrical, magnetic matter, in the conviction that it has thereby gotten hold of properties as they truly are.