Journal 



OF THE 



NEW-YORK MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 



Vol. VI. APRIL, 1890. No. 2. 



PROTOPLASM AND THE CELL DOCTRINE. 



ANNUAL ADDRESS OK THE PRESIDENT, CHARLES F. COX, I\L A. 



{Delivered January yi, 1890.) 



Truth, like the ocean, tends to a general level ; but its sur- 

 face is always ruffled by winds of speculation. All philosophy 

 is either above or below the normal line of ascertained fact. A 

 lack of knowledge keeps it in the trough of the sea ; a super- 

 fluity of imagination carries it upward on the crest of the wave. 

 In any case it holds a restless course, tossed hither and thither 

 by the shifting breeze of opinion. 



Every hypothesis starts from a point much lower than the 

 actual truth-level, is pushed by the enthusiasm of its advocates 

 far beyond the limit of rigid induction, and then, after many 

 gradually weakening oscillations, is finally brought down to a 

 state of nearly stable equilibrium by the force of logical 

 gravitation. * 



Such has been, in part at least, the history of the hypothesis 

 which has come to be known as the protoplasmic theory of 

 life. The stream of doctrine which has resulted in this theory 

 had its origin a little over fifty years ago, in a reaction from the 

 then prevailing belief in a vital principle, or spiritual essence, 

 which was not evolved by the parts or organs, but which entered 

 into and took possession of the organism as a whole and caused 

 it to live. 



It would seem as if protoplasm must have come under the notice 

 of the first serious worker with the microscope, although not 



