210 Transactions of the Society. 



know what life is, and we are told that living matter is only matter, 

 and that the same matter in the dead state is also only matter, and 

 this is the only reply from the materialist standpoint vouchsafed to 

 the question " What is life ? " 



Now the matter that moves is clear and transparent and 

 structureless, and, as I long ago showed elsewhere, the conclusion is 

 justified that such-like clear transparent structureless moving matter 

 exists in all living organisms from the lowest to the highest at 

 every period of life, in health and in every form of disease. I have, 

 therefore, called it living matter, and have pointed out that every 

 form of it yet discovered differs entirely and absolutely from any 

 form of non-living matter hitherto met with. But again and again 

 this inference has been contradicted, although the arguments long 

 ago advanced in its support remain unanswered and ignored. From 

 time to time slight concessions are made, but it is still maintained, 

 contrary to evidence, that there is a transition from the non-Hving 

 to the living, and that the chasm separating them, infinite as it is, 

 has in fact been already bridged. 



" Living matter " has been called profojjlasm, but that word 

 has been applied to matter which does not " live," to matter which 

 " grows," and to matter that does not " grow," to matter that 

 produces matter like itself out of that which is unlike, and to 

 matter which cannot do this, to coloured as well as to colourless 

 matter, to matter which is structureless and to matter that has very 

 distinct, definite, and remarkable structure, to matter in which 

 many granules can be seen, and to matter which is destitute of 

 granules, to the apparently homogeneous living matter seen under 

 the eye to be moving in a manner not to be explained, and the 

 unquestionably very heterogeneous magma dredged from the deep, 

 and artificially preserved, as well as to structures so absolutely 

 dead as roasted mutton and boiled lobster. 



The colourless moving matter of the amoeba is protoplasrtf. 

 The active part of a nerve-fibre is protoplasm. Contracting 

 muscle is protoplasm. Dead muscle is protoplasm. Eoast and 

 boiled muscle is protoplasm. The green colouring matter of plants 

 is protoplasm. Chlorophyll is a " living substance," says Dr. 

 Allman, and then remarks that chlorophyll contains starch. I 

 conclude, therefore, other colouring matters found in plants must 

 also, according to this view, be regarded as protoplasm. Is starch 

 as well as chlorophyll protoplasm ? Protoplasm is the basis of 

 physical life and the physical basis of life, and the physical basis of 

 mind. Bathyhius is protoplasm. Protoplasm, says Dr. Allman, is 

 essentially a combination of albuminoid bodies. Others have main- 

 tained that protoplasm has been made directly from non-living 

 matter, nay, is being so formed daily and hourly at this very time. 

 Many sanguine persons think that some day protoplasm will be 



