I0 PROTOPLASM. 



PROFESSOR HUXLEY'S PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE. 



IN order to convince people that the actions of living 

 beings are not due to any mysterious vitality or vital 

 force or power, but are in fact physical and chemical in their 

 nature, Prof. Huxley gives to matter which is alive, to matter 

 which is dead, and to matter which is completely changed 

 by roasting or boiling, the very same name. The matter of 

 sheep and mutton and man and lobster and egg is the same, 

 and according to Huxley, one may be transubstantiated into 

 the other. But how ? By " subtle influences," and " under 

 sundry circumstances," answers this authority. And all 

 these things alive, or dead, or roasted, he tells us are made 

 of protoplasm, and this protoplasm is the physical basis of 

 life, or the basis of physical life* But can the discoverer of 

 " subtle influences" afford to sneer at the fiction of vitality? 

 By calling things which differ from one another in many 

 qualities by the same name, Huxley annihilates distinctions, 

 enforces identity, and sweeps away the difficulties which 

 have impeded the progress of previous philosophers in 

 their search after unity. Plants and worms and men are 

 all protoplasm, and protoplasm is albuminous matter, and 

 albuminous matter consists of four elements, and these four 

 elements possess certain properties, by which properties all 

 differences between plants and worms and men are to be 

 accounted for. Although Huxley would probably admit 

 that a worm was not a man, he would tell us that by " subtle 



* The iron basis of the candle, and the basis of the iron candle are 

 expressions evidently interchangeable. 



