32 JOURNAL OF THE [April, 



* * * * We can neither acquire the functions of what we 

 eat, nor impart our functions to what eats us. We shall not 

 come to fly by feeding on vultures, nor they to speak by feeding 

 on us. No possible manure of human brains will enable a corn- 

 field to reason." '* 



On the subject of chemicg^l constitution Professor Huxley 

 says " it will be observed that the existence of the matter of life 

 depends on the pre-existence of certain compounds, namely, car- 

 bonic acid, water and ammonia. Withdraw any one of these 

 three from the world and all vital phenomena come to an end. 

 They are related to the protoplasm of the plant, as the proto- 

 plasm of the plant is to that of the animal. Carbon, hydrogen, 

 oxygen, and nitrogen are all lifeless bodies. Of these carbon 

 and oxygen unite in certain proportions and under certain con- 

 ditions, to give rise to carbonic acid ; hydrogen and oxygen pro- 

 duce water ; nitrogen and hydrogen give rise to ammonia. 

 These new compounds, like the elementary bodies of which they 

 are composed, are lifeless. But when they are brought together 

 under certain conditions they give rise to the still more complex 

 body, protoplasm, and this protoplasm exhibits the phenomena 

 of life. I see no break in this series of steps in molecular com- 

 plication, and I am unable to understand why the language 

 which is applicable to any one term of the series may not be 

 used to any of the others ; " and so he- at last comes to ask : 

 "What better philosophical status has vitality than aqiiosity V 

 To which Doctor Sterling replies : " The molecules are as fully 

 accounted for in protoplasm as in water ; but the sum of quali- 

 ties thus exhausted in the latter, is not so exhausted in the 

 former, in which there are qualities due, plainly, not to the mole- 

 cules as molecules, but to the form into which they are thrown, 

 and the force that makes that form one. * * * * As the 

 differences of ice and steam from water lay not in the hydrogen 

 and oxygen, but in the heat, so the difference of living from 

 dead protoplasm lies not in the carbon, the hydrogen, the oxy- 

 gen, and the nitrogen, but in the vital organization. In all cases, 

 for the new quality, plainly, we must have a new explanation. 

 The qualities of a steam-engine are not the results of its simple 

 chemistry." 



" " As Regards Protoplasm." By James Hvitchlsoq Sterling, LL, D. EcUnburgh, 

 Oct. 1869, 5d edM,, 1873. 



