NATURE OF LIFE AND LIVING MATERIAL 25 



In protoplasm, salts, acids, and bases are present and dissociated 

 into ions. Thus these substances confer charges on the surfaces at 

 which they accumulate. And so it has been found that these col- 

 loidal particles each bear an electrical charge, each minute in itself, 

 that may be changed as chemical reactions take place in proto- 

 plasm or ionizing substances are introduced from the outside 

 environment. 



Protoplasm as a Reaction System. The properties of 

 water are indissociably linked with the properties of protoplasm. 

 Water is an almost universal solvent; its electrical characteristics are 

 such that chemical reactions take place in water more readily than 

 in any other environment; its specific heat is high and it therefore 

 serves as a heat buffer, that is, retains and dissipates heat energy 

 slowly. Furthermore, the plasticity and fluidity of protoplasm are 

 largely expressions of the presence and state of water in the system. 

 It has been pointed out that the compounds in protoplasm are 

 extremely numerous and very complex. With water universally 

 present throughout the protoplasm, the stage is set for an intricate, 

 interrelated series of actions and reactions between the water and 

 other constituents, and between the complex compounds, new com- 

 pounds being constantly formed and others being broken down, an 

 amazingly complicated system with many dependent and probably 

 many independent variables. All these reactions are bound to affect 

 the surface energy relations and electrical conditions in this col- 

 loidal state, as these in turn afifect and determine the reactions. 

 But it must not be thought that this complex of action and inter- 

 action is in any way chaotic. On the contrary, all the evidence indi- 

 cates that the whole is an orderly and unified system. It is merely 

 our lack of anything like a complete knowledge of the workings 

 of matter in the living state that leads us into confusion. In other 

 words, the confusion is subjective, not objective. We have at hand 

 only the merest outlines and probably they are not very accurate. 

 Electrons and protons determine the behavior of the elements; the 



