EXPERIMENTS NOW RECORDED 97 



plicated processes, while in nature's laboratory, 

 under the influence of those subtle catalysers 

 known as enzymes, such bodies seem formed more 

 or less directly. 



How simply, by natural processes, even actual 

 protoplasm can be engendered may be gathered 

 from the fact that Bacteria and Torula*, when in- 

 troduced into the simple solution of ammonic tar- 

 trate and sodic phosphate in distilled water, will, 

 under the synthetic influence of light, rapidly grow 

 and multiply. What takes place in such a case 

 may be regarded as a process akin to that which 

 occurs in our saline solutions, or in organic in- 

 fusions purified by heat, when fermentations, less 

 or more marked in activity, are " spontaneously ' 

 initiated, with the result that multitudes of living 

 units appear as the most notable synthetic pro- 

 ducts. We have, in each case, the formation of 

 living matter out of the simplest elements, though 

 the starting-point in the latter instances remains 

 a mystery. 



Still, we start in the experimental fluids with 

 colloidal combinations which do not exist ready 

 formed in the ammoniacal solution; and the cell 

 substance or protoplasm of which the new-born 

 units are formed is composed of varying combina- 



