The Presidenfs Address. By L. S. Beale, F.B.S. 213 



having the right amount of inteUigence, are to be able to premise 

 what sort of living power is to be evolved from any given piece of 

 living matter. Living matter, it is said, consists of a basis, a 

 l^hysical basis, the changes in which somehow result in life — in 

 fact, a physical basis of physical life. But it is very remarkable 

 that the difference between the physical basis of a living thing and 

 the physical basis of the same thing in the dead state has not been 

 pointed out, or even the possibility of there being any difference at 

 all hinted at. 



The physical-basis-of-life argument being accepted, some may 

 perhaps be able to show that a ship is the result of the properties 

 of the particles of iron which constitute her physical basis; and 

 that the house is a consequence of the interaction of the forces of 

 the particles of clay, wood, iron, &c., of which it has been built. 

 The act of construction or building, as well as the designer, the 

 constructer, and the working artificers being of no consequence, 

 are entirely left out of account. In the living thing, it is denied 

 that any force or power exists which directs, or changes, or controls 

 the relation to one another of the material particles, but it is 

 asserted that from these the life is evolved ; and though, no doubt, the 

 statement that iron evolved the ship, or that clay, &g., evolved the 

 house, would not be readily accepted as true, it would not be in any 

 degree more absurd or less tenable than the assertion that man is 

 evolved from the matter of which his body is constituted, or that a 

 living particle results from the interaction of the forces of the 

 matter of which it consists. 



Pi'operties of Protoplasm. 



From the chair of the British Association it was declared only 

 last autumn, that " Life is a property of protoplasm,"— and, that 

 there may be no ambiguity as to the sense in which the word 

 property is used, we are further assured that the properties of 

 living matter may be compared with those of lifeless matter, and 

 that there are unmistakable analogies between vital actions and 

 phenomena purely physical. 



Among the '• properties " of protoplasm is often mentioned 

 "irritalnlity." What is meant by irritability has, however, never 

 been fully explained by any one. Dr. Allman speaks of it as the " one 

 grand character of all living beings," so that growth, multiplication, 

 movement, nutrition, in short, " life," is considered to be due to this 

 " irritability." But muscular contraction is also said to depend 

 upon the irritability of the " protoplasm " of the muscle. But the 

 protoplasm of muscle is certainly not living in the sense that the 

 protoplasm of an amoeba, for instance, is living. The last can 

 grow and multiply l»y division. The muscle cannot do so. 

 " Irritability " in one case accounts for movements limited as 



