AND ITS INHABITANTS 83 



From one point of view it is impossible to analyze proto- 

 plasm because the least disturbance of its fundamental organi- 

 zation results in a cessation of those phenomena characteristic 

 of life, leaving matter in the non-living state before us. How- 

 ever, since in the transformation of matter from the living to 

 the lifeless condition there is certainly no loss of weight, it 

 follows that the complete material basis of protoplasmic 

 organization remains for examination, and we may assume, 

 as a working hypothesis, that the properties of protoplasm are 

 a resultant of the properties of its constituent elements. But 

 it may be noted in passing that an analysis of the debris from 

 a destroyed factory probably would give one very little insight 

 into the modus operandi of the intact organization. 



Physical characteristics of protoplasm. Since the funda- 

 mental activities of all forms of protoplasm are of the same 

 nature, biologists have naturally tried to discover a correspond- 

 ing fundamental physicochemical basis in all living matter, 

 and thus far research, broadly speaking, indicates that such 

 exists. Living protoplasm ordinarily appears under a moder- 

 ately high power of the microscope as a viscid, granular fluid. 

 When studied with the highest magnifications, usually after 

 being killed and stained, it often exhibits an extremely complex 

 structure which, however, cannot be briefly described, as it is 

 subject to considerable variation not only in the protoplasm of 

 different organisms and tissues, but in the same microscopic 

 unit mass under varying physiological conditions. Most fre- 

 quently, though, it seems to present a foam-like appearance, 

 due perhaps to closely crowded minute drops of a liquid alveo- 

 lar substance suspended in a continuous interalveolar substance, 

 also liquid but of a different physical nature. But it seems 

 clear, since studies of protoplasmic structure have revealed by 

 no means a complete correlation between its morphological 

 organization and its activities, that the key to the latter must 

 lie in an ultra-microscopic architecture whose varying phases 



