26 PROTOPLASM. 



Aquosity and Vitality. 







The properties possessed by inorganic compounds are 

 supposed to be due in some way to the properties of 

 the elements of which they consist Thus it has been 

 remarked that the properties of water result from the 

 properties of its constituent gases, and are not due to 

 " aquosity," as if any reasonable man would think of 

 referring the properties of water to such a " subtle in- 

 fluence" as " aquosity." It has been argued that since the 

 properties of water are due to its gases and not to aquosity, 

 the properties of protoplasm are due to its elements, Oxygen, 

 Hydrogen, Nitrogen, and Carbon, and not to vitality. But 

 the cases are by no means parallel. Of water there is but 

 one kind.* Of protoplasm there are kinds innumerable. 

 The constituent elements of the same particle of water may 

 be separated and recombined again and again as many 

 times as we please; but the elements of protoplasm once 

 separated from one another, can never be combined again 

 to form any kind of protoplasm. But further, every kind of 

 protoplasm differs from every other kind most remarkably 

 in the results of its living, one producing man, another dog, 

 a third butterfly, a fourth amoeba, and so on. Now, what 

 can be more absurd than to suggest that the properties of 

 man, dog, butterfly, and amoeba are due not to vitality, but 



* A hostile critic has discovered that there are at least two kinds, 

 dirty water and clean water ! 



