102 



THE MUSEUM. 



guest; and viewed in this light, some- 

 thing that comes into the dwelHng and 

 fills it, is life and there is living proto- 

 plasm and a living thing. Ere long, 

 this guest goes out of its dwelling, and 

 there is left dead protoplasm, and a 

 dead thing. 



It may seem strange that all the 

 diversity we see in living things, from 

 the microscopic fungi, to the Giant 

 Pine of California, from the animalcule 

 in a drop of water, to the whale that 

 flounders in the ocean deep, should 

 originate, and be built up, from the 

 same structureless unit, a bit of unor- 

 ganized jelly like protoplasm, into all 

 these diversified forms under the con- 

 troling principle of life; but science 

 has not yet, and possibly never may 

 furnish the key to unlock the mystery. 



Whether the 76 atoms of carbon, 

 hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, that 

 make up dead protoplasm, are in any 

 way changed in their relative grouping 

 in the combination, whether they have 

 any new powtrs conferred on them by 

 the life principle, is left for us only to 

 surmise. 



The chemist finds himself powerless 

 to analyze living matter, and thus solve 

 the problem; but not more powerless 

 than the physicist, to explain, how this 

 vital force called life, has the power, 

 silently and constantly, to transform 

 lifeless mineral matter, and from it, 

 build up, and, for a time, use it as a 

 habitation of life and beauty. 



The mechanics of physics are not 

 the mechanics of life. We have been 

 taught to believe that if the same thing 

 be added to equal things, the results 

 must be equal. Not so, however, in 

 things of life. That particle of proto- 

 plasm, animated by the principle of 



life, developes perchance into a worm; 

 this particle, animated by the same 

 principle of life, developes into a dog, 

 a horse or a human being; for the 

 great architect has commanded a law, 

 "after its kind," conformity to type, 

 and stamped it upon every atom in the 

 world. 



Here, it seems to me, is suggested a 

 possible mistake running along the 

 whole current of scientific literature. 

 Do not such facts rather point to a 

 variation in the very nature and com- 

 position of protoplasm, undiscernable 

 thought it may be to our senses and 

 tests; and that be these differences 

 what they may, vital function is not a 

 product, yielded up as a result of 

 chemical or physical structure or com- 

 position. 



Having made these observations 

 about life in general, let us proceed to 

 trace it on our globe. That which is 

 possessed of life, is an animal or a 

 plant, and belongs to the organic king- 

 dom, because alt such individuals 

 have some organ, to accomplish their 

 work and mission in living. The struc- 

 ture may be so simple, that there ap- 

 pears to be complete identity in every 

 particle of it. In the lowest forms of 

 life, it is merely a particle of structure- 

 less protoplasm, or jelly-like substance ; 

 yet small finger-like processes of this 

 may be thrust out in all directions and 

 again withdrawn; proving conclusively 

 the presence of a nervous matter and 

 muscular contractility, acting under vi- 

 tality. 



There must be digestion, too, or ab- 

 sorption into its substance of material 

 necessary to sustain it, though there is 

 no stomach. 



In a creature so small, very much of 



