28 PROTOPLASM. 



they teach. So long as they tell us their investigations only 

 tend towards such a consummation, they must expect a few 

 to be wanting in faith. 



Sheep, Lobster, and Hitman Protoplasm. 



Mr. Huxley seems to maintain that protoplasm may be 

 killed and dried, roasted and boiled, or otherwise altered, 

 and yet remain protoplasm ; but his " protoplasm" is after all 

 only albuminoid or protein matter.* Huxley says lobster- 

 protoplasm may be converted into human protoplasm, and 

 the latter again turned into living lobster. But the statement 

 is incorrect; because, in the process of assimilation "pro- 

 toplasm" is entirely disintegrated, and is not converted into 

 the new tissue in the form of protoplasm at all; and he 

 must permit me to remark that sheep cannot be transub- 

 stantiated into man, even by " subtle influences," nor can 

 dead protoplasm be converted into living protoplasm, or a 

 dead sheep into a living man. And what is gained by calling 

 the matter of dead roast mutton and of a living growing sheep 

 by the same name ? If the last is the physical basis Qtlife one 

 does not see how the first can be so too, unless roast mutton 

 and living sheep are identical ; but surely Mr. Huxley does 

 not really mean to assert this. 



It is remarkable that Huxley himself, some sixteen years 



* Mr. Huxley says "all protoplasm is proteinaceous ; or, as the 

 white or albumen of an egg is one of the commonest examples of a 

 nearly pure protein matter, we may say that all living matter is more or 

 less albuminoid." If the white of an egg is living matter, why should 

 not its shell be so considered ? 



