THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OE LIVING MATTER 



(PROTOPLASM). 



By A. JEFFERIS TURNER, M.D. 



[Read before the Royal Society of Queensland, 13th May, 1899.] 



Mr. Byram's exceedingly interesting paper on the " Beginnings 

 of Life " touched at its close on topics which belong, as he 

 remarked, rather to the realm of i)hilosophy than of science, 

 strictly so called. He described to us the simplest known living 

 beings, illustrated in a very able way their marvellous variety of 

 form and activity, and at the same time pointed out their 

 apparent simplicity of structure ; how that they all were but 

 modifications of a single cell, that is, a naked mass of jelly-like 

 protoplasm, containing a central portion of greater density 

 known as the nucleus. We were shown how cells of the closest 

 similarity of form and activity to these existed in the higher 

 animals and plants, how the tissues of all animals and plants 

 were composed of collections of such cells, modified more or less 

 from their primitive simplicity to perform special functions, yet 

 never departing very far from it ; and how, in fact, every animal 

 and plant, every one of us, originated from a cell of very simple 

 form, the ovum, closely comparable to an amoeba, or other 

 unicellular organism. So far our lecturer kept to the firm ground 

 of science. All that he told us is easily demonstrable, and very 

 much of it can be actually seen by anyone who will devote a little 

 pains to the investigation. But anyone so doing, if of a 

 thoughtful disposition, can hardly fail to ask himself certain 

 questions, which, as Mr. Byram remarked, are probably to be 

 regarded as insoluble. What is the nature of this glairy, 

 transparent, mobile substance we call protoplasm, which forms 

 the body of this shifting speck of life ? How does it differ from 

 other substances know to us as lifeless and inorganic, and is this 



