THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 151 



ferred from definitely formed morphological units to 

 utterly indefinite and formless masses of what is called 

 protoplasm. Instead therefore of an obvious form of Life, 

 we are reduced to a matter of Life, presenting no appre- 

 ciable morphological characters. It becomes evident, 

 moreover, that if the old term c cell' is now applied to 

 these bits of living stuff or protoplasm (simply because 

 biologists have been compelled to transfer the power of 

 manifesting vital properties to such masses, instead 

 of restricting this power to definitely formed morpho- 

 logical units) the term must, nevertheless, have entirely 

 lost its old signification, and can be regarded in no 

 other way than as a mere courtesy title when so em- 

 ployed. Vital power has obviously been transferred 

 from a morphological unit (the cell) to mere formless 

 living matter, and if some persist in calling a portion 

 of such mere matter by the name of the morphological 

 unit, simply because this was of old also assumed to be 

 the ultimate vital unit, we must not allow our minds 

 to be confused by such use of the word \ 



in order to prevent this, a new term must be intro- 

 duced, and the old term must lose something of its 

 definiteness: it must, at the same time, renounce 

 for ever one of the characteristics with which many 

 have credited it. In accordance with the views above 

 expressed, the c cell,' even in its modern sense the 

 mass of protoplasm containing a nucleus cannot be 

 regarded as the ultimate vital unit. It is also less 

 1 See Hutchison Stirling's ' As regards Protoplasm,' &c., 1869, p. 16. 



