X PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 



divide themselves and act dispersedly, for in some of them 

 almost the whole cell substance may be withdrawn from the 

 shell and spread abroad in the form of minute rays, which, 

 nevertheless, unite in different places or inosculate, as it is termed, 

 and form irregular patches or reticulations. After extensive 

 research, two German biologists — Max Schultze and de Bary — 

 in 1859 demonstrated that the so called sarcode or elementary 

 flesh was identical with protoplasm, and although the term cell 

 was retained, all reference to an enclosed vesicle was discarded, 

 and it was simply defined as a minute portion of this substance, 

 protoplasm, endowed with the attributes of life. Here again, 

 however, biologists suffered themselves to be dominated by a 

 particular idea, and it led to conceptions which are now seen 

 to be erroneous. Protoplasm was said to be akin to the group 

 of complex compounds known as proteids, of which albumen, 

 or white of egg, is an example, and was thought by many to be 

 one of these compounds, and by others to be a mixture of two 

 or more or them. Although, therefore, observers had noticed 

 the minute oval or elongated body in the cell, known as the 

 nucleus, and had not overlooked the appearance of minute 

 granules interspersed through the protoplasm of the cell, these 

 phenomena were not supposed to possess any special significance. 

 The protoplasm itself was conceived to be the life substance, or, 

 as Professor Huxley defined it, " the physical basis of life." 

 It was said that pure protoplasm would not show either nucleus 

 or granular structure, but would be perfectly homogeneous and 

 undifferentiated, and would have as its salient property — life or 

 vitality. This conception was borne out by the great strides 

 which were being made in chemistry. The synthetic powers of 

 the chemist were no longer confined to the production of the 

 simple inorganic compounds, but extended to the far 

 more complex substances which are the result of animal 

 and vegetable life. It was found that just as the chemist could 

 combine artificially two volumes of hydrogen gas with one of 

 oxygen, and produce by their combination the liquid — water with 

 all its essential characteristics just as it exists in nature, so he 

 could combine, for instance, hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen in 

 just such proportions as to produce that acrid, pungent, liquid 

 found naturally in the bodies of ants, and known as formic acid. 

 Considering protoplasm to be a very complex chemical compound, 

 or even a mixture of chemical compounds, it was a very natural 

 inference for the chemist that only its great complexity 

 prevented him from making it artificially, just as he had made 



