president's address. 217 



plasm, endowed with its simplest life-properties, could be 

 produced meclianically or chemically, or by the co-operation of 

 both chemistry and physics, there is not a scientific man on the 

 earth that would hesitate an instant to give it welcome. 



Now it would be a travesty to suppose that the great German 

 biologist even suggests that protoplasm has been made, to say 

 nothing of protoplasm living. But interesting work has 

 certainly been done. His work was based on the formation 

 of foams. When delicate and minute quantities of a substance 

 that will dissolve in water are mixed with a fatty oil and the 

 combination is put into water, the water diffuses into the oil 

 and is deposited in small beads round the soluble substance, 

 forming what Butschli calls a foam. 



Microscopically examined, these particles are relatively large 

 and coarse. To approximate the German professor's work, we 

 must place a layer of good olive oil on a shallow glass vessel ; 

 this must be placed in a constant temperatui'e of oO'^ C. 

 Gradually the oil attains a suitable degree of thickness and 

 viscosity. This is a crucial matter, and only several tests 

 can determine it. 



From this, when in the right condition, vesiculate drops are 

 prepared. A little dry carbonate of potash is ground with 

 great care in a small agate mortar. This is breathed upon 

 until the salt becomes slightly moist, and then a drop of the 

 •oil is added ; the two constituents are then' mixed until they 

 become a thick paste. A few drops, extremely minute, taken 

 from this are placed on a thin cover-glass, which has previously 

 had four equally thick pegs of paraffin slightly melted upon it 

 to form legs or supports. A small drop of water is now placed 

 on the centre of a slip of glass, and the cover-glass, with its 

 drops of paste, is laid on so that the paste makes contact wath 

 the water. This is placed in a damp chamber for twenty-four 

 or thirty hours, ^vhen the whole appears milk-like and opaque. 



The preparation must now be well-washed with water. I 

 find that this can best be done by means of a vaccine-tube of 

 water supplied to one edge, and drawn out by blotting paper, 

 or a small bundle of fine glass-blown fibres tightly bound 

 together on the other side. 



If the drops are now carefully examined, it is highly probable 

 that they will be seen to change both their positions and their 



