212 Transactions of the Society. 



affirms this slime to be " living matter," in which " no law of 

 Morphology has as yet exerted itself." Now upon what Dr. Allman 

 bases his statements is by no means clear. He tells us : — 1. That 

 slimy matter dredged up from the Atlantic was preserved in spirits. 

 2. That specimens of this shmy matter were examined and declared 

 to consist of protoplasm. 3. That this protoplasm must in a living 

 state extend over wide areas of sea bottom ! The matter has 

 been further examined, he says, by Haeckel, who has confirmed all 

 that had been advanced by Huxley, and who is convinced : — 1. 

 That the bottom of the open ocean at depths below 5000 feet is 

 covered with an enormous mass of living protoplasm. 2. That this 

 enormous mass of living protoplasm " lingers there in the simplest 

 and most primitive cofidition, having as yet acquired no definite 

 form." 3. Haeckel suggests that " this enormous mass of living 

 protoplasm 7nay have originated hj spontaneous generation." 



We see then that this very wonderful slime, by the exhaustive 

 examination of Haeckel, has been made much more wonderful. Not 

 only is it living protoplasm which " lingers in the simplest and 

 most primitive condition," but it lives upon the inorganic, and 

 " probably " OYigmsited from it by spontaneous generation. Now, 

 Gentlemen, please consider the sort of facts adduced, and the 

 inferences deduced from them. Professor Huxley, speaking upon 

 Dr. AUman's address, remarks " that Bathybius could not be found 

 when he was wanted, and when he was found, all sorts of things 

 were said about him." I shall leave ifc for your consideration and 

 determination whether Bathybius was not " wanted " before he was 

 found ; whether he has actually been found although he has long 

 been " wanted " and has been diligently searched for during many 

 years; whether many of the things said concerning his origin, 

 existence, properties, and composition, should be accepted as being 

 correct, and based upon actual observation; and, lastly, whether 

 Huxley's " Bathybius HaecJcelii " ought or ought not, after a con- 

 jectural existence of several years, to be allowed to rest among 

 confuted hypotheses and discarded myths. 



Physical Basis — Protoplasm. 



It is now generally assumed that all Life is somehow dependent 

 upon the properties of the actual matter that lives ; indeed, life is 

 referred to the properties possessed by the particles before they 

 acquired the living state. In short, it is asserted that life is physical 

 or material. Moreover, it is maintained by many physicists and 

 others, that all the phenomena peculiar to living things will some 

 day be adequately accounted for by properties of the atoms or of the 

 matters compounded of them, which properties will be discovered. 

 So that, knowing the properties of the material particles in any 

 special case, we, or rather our successors, or those among them 



