7 6 PROTOPLASM. 



change ? Some action, state, or condition, must undoubt- 

 edly take place in the matter just prior to movement, 

 differing from the condition or state which obtains in the 

 living matter when no movement is about to occur, but we 

 cannot demonstrate any difference whatever; neither have 

 we yet been able to discover any means by which the state 

 of change just preceding active movement can be dis- 

 tinguished from the state of ordinary and comparative rest. 

 We do not in fact know when a movement is about to 

 occur, we only know the fact of its occurrence. If the 

 state just preceding movement is to be attributed to ante- 

 cedent phenomena, the state of rest might with equal pro- 

 priety be attributed to the very same antecedent phenomena. 

 It is doubtful if the word phenomenon is at all applicable 

 to the supposed change in the relations of the particles of 

 living matter which results in actual movement. Is it 

 correct to speak of a condition or state which cannot be 

 rendered evident to the senses, as a phenomenon ? A 

 certain change common to every kind of living matter 

 occurs just prior to the movement of its particles which 

 universally distinguishes this from every other known state 

 of matter. As the movement is peculiar, its cause must be 

 peculiar, and it seems more reasonable to attribute this to 

 some peculiar power manifested by living matter only, than 

 to an antecedent phenomenon which is different in its 

 essential nature from every other action or change to which 

 the term phenomenon has been applied. In truth, when 

 we enter upon the consideration of the cause of the 

 changes in living matter, we soon get beyond the limits of 

 observation and experiment. It may of course be said that 



