83 PROTOPLASM. 



earth or its roots into it, in obedience to the laws of gravi- 

 tation ? Are certain things taken up from the soil and 

 others rejected, or do the leaf cells tear away from carbonic 

 acid its carbon, and drive off its oxygen by reason of 

 chemical affinity ? Of course, it will be said that capillary 

 attraction, osmose and other forces, contribute in a highly 

 complex manner to bring about the results; but every one 

 at all acquainted with the subject knows, that the facts have 

 not been, and cannot be explained. Such questions are 

 usually evaded by those who profess to explain them. 

 I ask for one single instance in which the phenomena 

 actually occurring in any living thing, or in a particle of 

 living matter, can be adequately explained by physics and 

 chemistry. The only answer I get is, that if the pheno 

 mena cannot be explained now, it is certain they will be at 

 no very distant period. One must, however, acquire pro- 

 digious physical faith before one can hope to believe that 

 prophetic physics and chemistry are as worthy of accept- 

 ance and as convincing to the reason as facts of observation 

 and experiment. 



If the explanation of the facts by calling in the aid of 

 some agency, force, or power totally distinct from ordinary 

 force is unsatisfactory, is it not more unsatisfactory, nay, is 

 it not even false, to attribute them to the action of the 

 ordinary cosmical forces, concerning which much is known, 

 but which have never been proved to be capable of effect- 

 ing any changes at all like those which occur in every kind 

 of living matter ? 



And it would surely be more in accordance with the 

 true spirit of science, at least while our knowledge remains 



