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The title and introduction of the paper read: ON A HEURISTIC POINT OF VIEW CONCERNING THE PRODUCTION AND TRANSFORMATION OF LIGHT by A. Einstein [Annalen der Physik 17 (1905): 132-148] There exists a profound formal difference between the theoretical conceptions physicists have formed about gases and other ponderable bodies, and Maxwell's theory of electromagnetic processes in so-called empty space. While we conceive of the state of a body as being completely determined by the positions and velocities of a very large but nevertheless finite number of atoms and electrons, we use continuous spatial functions to determine the electromagnetic state of a space, so that a finite number of quantities cannot be considered as sufficient for the complete description of the electromagnetic state of a space. According to Maxwell's theory, energy is to be considered as a continuous spatial function for all purely electromagnetic phenomena, hence also for light, while according to the current conceptions of physicists the energy of a ponderable body is to be described as a sum extending over the atoms and electrons. The energy of a ponderable body cannot be broken up into arbitrarily many, arbitrarily small parts, while according to Maxwell's theory (or, more generally, according to any wave theory) the energy of a light ray emitted from a point source of light spreads continuously over a steadily increasing volume.