348 Kansas Academy of Science. 



He has not proved that germ-plasm is handed on from generation 

 to generation little changed, nor has he shown that life is a quality 

 of matter due to the number, kinds and arrangement of super- 

 molecules called biophors and determinants. 



It is well known, on the contrary, that germ-plasm and all other 

 forms of protoplasm are undergoing continuous change through 

 oxidation and repair of waste and through growth and division of, 

 cells, millions of times repeated in the case of the germ-cells, espe- 

 cially. Each plant and animal produces during its lifetime, if it 

 matures, thousands up to many millions of germ-cells. The plasm 

 with which each organism began would be but as a drop of water 

 to a barrelful compared with what it sends out. Nor can life be 

 merely a quality of matter due to the number, kinds and arrange- 

 ment of supermolecules in a colloidal mass of matter, containing 

 few kinds of molecules and undergoing constant change through 

 nutrition, oxidation and excretion. 



Such a claim for matter is so remarkable that a full statement of 

 its significance will show best how foreign such qualities are to the 

 matter of science and how appropriate they are to matter of the 

 imagination. Let us consider four facts universally known to be 

 true of organisms: (1) Since there are about one million species of 

 plants and animals on earth to-day, and at least twenty-five million 

 have existed in prehistoric times; (2) since each species is repre- 

 sented by millions of individuals, pmd has in past times been rep- 

 resented by millions more, each with its personal characteristics; 

 (3) since each complex organism has thousands up to billions of 

 cells, which differ in their powers and functions; (4) since each or- 

 ganism varies from year to year, and each species varies from cen- 

 tury to century: It follows that figures are entirely inadequate to 

 express the number of combinations and variety of combinations 

 of molecules and supermolecules that would be needed to provide a 

 setting for these qualities, .^ere such attributes possible to matter. 



The molecules of lifeless matter may be shifted and rearranged 

 at pleasure without showing in the least the qualities of living mat- 

 ter; and no chemist or physicist has yet been able to make even an 

 organic molecule like starch from carbondioxid, water and sun- 

 shine, still less a supermolecule with life. 



All true biologists must claim that a peculiar entity which he 

 knows as life bears the myriad and variable qualities such as living 

 organisms possess, and must sharply differentiate the powers of life 

 from those of energy and matter. Matter alone, nor matter with 

 energy, certainly cannot manage such complex reproductive pro- 

 cesses as those we have just studied. 



