LIFE AND ELECTRICITY 26 



Professor Huxley, writing " On the Physical Basis of 

 Life "* said : " Thus a nucleated mass of protoplasm turns 

 out to be what may be termed the structural unit of the 

 human body. As a matter of fact, the body in its earliest 

 state, is a mere multiple of such units ; and in its perfect 

 condition, it is a multiple of such units, variously modified. 

 . . . . What has been said of the animal world is no 

 less true of plants. Imbedded in the protoplasm at the 

 broad, or attached, end of the nettle hair, there lies a 

 spheroidal nucleus. Careful examination proves that the 

 whole substance of the nettle is made up for repetition of 

 such masses of nucleated protoplasm, each contained in a 

 wooden case, which is modified in form, sometimes into a 

 woody fibre, sometimes into a duct or spiral vessel, sometimes 

 into a pollen grain, or an ovule. Traced back to its earliest 

 state the nettle arises as man does, in a particle of nucleated 

 protoplasm. . . . Thus it becomes clear that all living 

 powers are cognate, and that all living forms are funda- 

 mentally of one character. . . . Perhaps it would not 

 yet be safe to say that all forms of protoplasm are affected 

 by the direct action of electric shocks ; and yet the number 

 of cases in which the contraction of protoplasm is shown to 

 be affected by this agency increases every day." 



*Metliods and Bssays. 



