82 THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF LIVING MATTER. 



exhibited by living matter, that is to say, protoplasm, and other 

 varieties of matter. As to this difference there is no dispute, 

 and the more one grasps it mentally the less inclined one is to 

 minimise it in any way. But when we come to the explanation 

 of this difference, we find two possible alternatives. We may 

 regard protoplasm as ordinary matter acted upon by ordinary 

 chemical and physical forces, but of exceedingly complex 

 constitution. Or we may regard it as ordinary matter plus an 

 immaterial something to which is commonly applied the tenns 

 " life," " vitality," " vital principle." On the former alternative 

 the differences between protoplasm and ordinary matter are 

 differences of great extent, it is true, but only of degree. On the 

 latter hypothesis there is a gap between the two which no 

 thought nor reasoning can bridge over. 



I have lately been reading a quaint old book written some 

 two hundreds years back by one of our old English naturalists, 

 John Ray. It so happens that in this work two opposing views 

 as to the nature of living matter are both stated. In treating of 

 this very development of the animal body, Ray remarks — " It 

 seems impossible that Matter, divided into as many minute and 

 subtle Parts as you will, or can imagine, and those moved 

 according to what Catholick Laws soever can be devised, should 

 without the Presidency and Direction of some intelligent Agent, 

 by the meer Agitation of a gentle Heat, run itself into such a 

 curious Machine as the the Body of Man is." The difficulty, 

 which must have occurred to everyone who has considered the 

 problem, could not be stated with more definiteness. When Ray 

 is treating of another subject, the contractions of the heart, he 

 states his views again. The cardiac contractions were, he 

 supposed, due to an influx of spirits (by which he did not mean 

 anything immaterial, the word meaning simply gases or 

 vapours) into the heart during systole. " What," he asks, 

 ^'directs and moderates the Motions of the Spirits? They 

 being but stupid and senseless Matter, cannot of themselves 

 continue any regular and constant Motion without the Guidance 

 and ReguJation of some intelligent Being. You will say. What 

 Agent io it which you would have to effect this ? The sensitive 

 Soul it cannot be, because that is indivisible, but the Heart when 

 separated wholly from the Body in some Animals continues still 

 to pulse for a considerable time ; nay, when it hath quite ceased 

 it may be brought to beat again by the application of warm 



