Vitalifij and Organization of Protoplasm. . 31 



can ever be explained, here we have offered to us the most promising 

 Held for investigation. In suitable specimens all_ vital phenomena are 

 openly displayed in visible transparency. And it can not be denied, 

 thatThe adequate scientific explanation of the vital phenomena of such 

 protoplasmic beings, carries with it the explanation of the essential 

 vital phenomena of all protoplasmic beings. The pai'ticular mysterious- 

 ness^taching to life as a natural phenomenon would then be effectively 

 dispelled, so far as scientific interpretation is concerned. 



But itls well to remind ourselves at this juncture, that the living sub- 

 stance with all its properties is revealed to us in the medium of our 

 visual j^^epts. What \\;e actually perceive are obviously visual phe- 

 nomena arising within our own being. And, as such, they can be only 

 symbolical, though definite, representations of the foreign existent 

 whose activities are stimulating our sense of vision in specific ways. It 

 is solely upon the evidence of these visual signs, consisting of definite 

 spatial forms and movements, that we realize the presence and the activi- 

 ties of the foreign existent, and draw therefrom our conclusions con- 

 cerning them. 



This vicarious nature of our knowledge of the phenomena of life, ac- 

 cruing to us symbolically, chiefly in the medium of our sense of vision, 

 accounts sufficiently for the back-ground of mystery legitimately attach- 

 ing to vital manifestations. This epistemoLogical fact has to be clearly 

 borne in mind, in order rightly to correlate living being with the rest 

 of sense-revealed nature. For the life of organic beings, though a far 

 more complex phenomenon than other natural occurrences, is really no 

 more nor less mysterious in its constitution and its activities, than are 

 the constitution and the "actT?iHes~of unorganized and non-living sub- 

 stances. Perceptible nature in all its modes of appearance belongs to 

 one and the same order of nature. oSTo essential disparity in this respect 

 obtains between bodies that display vital phenomena in out and out de- 

 pendence on a non-vital environment, and such as display only what 

 are called physical or lifeless phenomena. 



The study of protoplasmic beings yields an interpretation of vital 

 phenomena at least as scientifically complete, though not as accurately 

 measurable as is afforded bj the study of purely physical phenomena. 

 These are likewise chiefly revealed and scientifically expressed in visual 

 terms of expansion and motion, and, therefore, no less vicariously and 

 symbolically, than is the case with vital phenomena. 



VITAL MOTILITY. 



To our sight the most salient evidence of being alive is the self-move- 

 ment of organic individuals. An animal that no longer moves is held 

 to be dead, or at least, to have its life suspended for the time being. - 

 And as regards protoplasm, the veritable living substance in plants and 

 in animals, its vital motility is quite conspicuously the visible nhenome- 

 non, by which its being alive chiefly evinces itself. In case we succeed 

 in disclosing the ways and means through which the motility of proto- 



