PROTOPLASM AND LIFE. 723 



can be applied. You have before you a glairy, tenacious fluid, which, 

 if not absolutely homogeneous, is yet totally destitute of structure. 



And yet no one who contemplates this spontaneously moving mat- 

 ter can deny that it is alive. Liquid as it is, it is a living liquid ; or- 

 ganless and structureless as it is, it manifests the essential phenomena 

 of life. 



The picture which I have thus endeavored to trace for you in a 

 few leading outlines is that of protoplasm in its most generalized 

 aspect. Such generalizations, however, are in themselves unable to 

 satisfy the conditions demanded by an exact scientific inquiry, and I 

 propose now, before passing to the further consideration of the place 

 and purport of protoplasm in nature, to bring before you some definite 

 examples of protoplasm, such as are actually met with in the organic 

 world. 



A quantity of a peculiar slimy matter was dredged in the North 

 Atlantic by the naturalists of the exploring-ship Porcupine from a 

 depth of from 5,000 to 25,000 feet. It is described as exhibiting, when 

 examined on the spot, spontaneous movements, and as being obviously 

 endowed with life. Specimens of this, preserved in spirits, were ex- 

 amined by Professor Huxley, and declared by him to consist of pro- 

 toplasm, vast masses of which must thus in a living state extend over 

 wide areas of sea-bottom. To this wonderful slime Huxley gave the 

 name of Bathybius Haeckelii. 



Bathybius has since been subjected to an exhaustive examination 

 by Professor Haeckel, who believes that he is able to confirm in all 

 points the conclusions of Huxley, and arrives at the conviction that 

 the bottom of the open ocean at depths below 5,000 feet is covered 

 with an enormous mass of living protoplasm, which lingers there in 

 the simplest and most primitive condition, having as yet acquired no 

 definite form. He suggests that it may have originated by spontaneous 

 generation, but leaves this question for future investigations to decide. 



The reality of Bathybius, however, has not been universally ac- 

 cepted. In the more recent investigations of the Challenger the ex- 

 plorers have failed in their attempts to bring further evidence of the 

 existence of masses of amorphous protoplasm spreading over the bed 

 of the ocean. They have met with no trace of Bathybius in any of 

 the regions explored by them, and they believe that they are justified 

 in the conclusion that the matter found in the dred^ino-s of the Por- 

 cupine and preserved in spirits for further examination, was only an 

 inorganic precipitate due to the action of the alcohol. 



It is not easy to believe, however, that the very elaborate investiga- 

 tions of Huxley and Haeckel can be thus disposed of. These, more- 

 over, have received strong confirmation from the still more recent 

 observations of the Arctic voyager Bessels, who was one of the ex- 

 plorers of the ill-fated Polaris, and who states that he dredged from 

 the Greenland seas masses of living undifferentiated protoplasm. 



