THE INORGANIC REALM 563 
between living and lifeless things. Certain naturalists go so far as 
to insist that even to-day no fundamental difference can be found 
that will absolutely distinguish all organisms from all minerals. 
They say that life consists merely of the activities of protoplasm, 
that these are determined solely by the combined properties of 
the several chemical elements of which protoplasm is composed, 
and that already it is possible to match every one of the fundamental 
properties of protoplasm by an artificial process. For example, if 
a crystal of copper sulphate be thrown into a solution of potassium 
ferrocyanide there is formed at once, by precipitation around the 
crystal, a membrane resembling a cell-wall, which presents every 
appearance of growing as a consequence of pressure from within and 
fresh precipitation wherever the two solutions come in contact. 
The artificial cell thus produced may attain considerable size and 
branch in various ways. Another striking experiment consists in 
putting a few grams of mercury into a flat-bottomed dish containing 
a 10% solution of nitric acid in water, and then placing a crystal of 
bichromate of potash on the bottom about an inch away from the 
mercury. As the potash salt dissolves it becomes surrounded by a 
reddish cloud which finally reaches the mercury. Then suddenly 
the mercury becomes agitated, moves toward the crystal, and 
envelopes it, very much as certain of the lower animals seize and 
swallow their prey. Finally, an experiment held to be of profound 
significance as showing in a mineral substance the very essence of 
growth and reproduction attended by anabolic and catabolic reac- 
tions, consists in adding to a certian quantity of acetic acid, chemic- 
ally equivalent amounts, successively, of phosphorous pentachlo- 
ride, zine ethyl, and oxygen. As a result there is formed double the 
original amount of acetic acid plus several substances which cor- 
respond to the by-products of organic metabolism.’ Here, then, we 
have what is regarded as the life-history of a molecule, which, so 
long as it is fed, grows and reproduces as if by fission and excretes 
much as a bacterium would do. 
1 For the benefit of students familiar with organic chemistry the 
transformations above referred to may be expressed by the following 
equations copied from Les Problémes de la Vie, by E. Giglio-Tos. Part I, 
1900, pp. 20, 21. 
Acetic acid Phosphorus Acetyl Phosphorus Hydrochloric 
(2 molecules) pentachloride chloride oxychloride acid 
CH, CH; 
+ PCI = | + PCl,0 + HCl 
COOH COC1 
COOH COC1 
PC. . =~ | + PCl,0O + HCl 
CH; CH, 
