184 . On the Regeneration Hypothesis. 
matter, and to “ evolution into higher forms ” subsequently ; but, I 
repeat, the fact of such conversion must he admitted by everyone, 
whether he he the most ultra freethinker ; whether he be the most 
liberal interpreter of the Bible, which says of man, “ And the Lord 
God formed man of the dust of the ground ; and breathed into his 
nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul or 
whether he be anything between these two extremes. It is not 
necessary for the exposition of my hypothesis to inquire what the 
requisite conditions of the change of not-living into living matter 
may be, but as to their presence I have emphasized the “ if” to 
avoid the possibility of controversy even with those who believe 
with Prof. Huxley that they are of such physical and chemical a 
nature as must have existed at some remote period of the earth's 
history, but which can no more occur again than that an adult man 
can pass through all the conditions of his infancy again. For my 
own part, however, I confess that while I do not know exactly 
what these conditions are, and admit that human agency has never 
succeeded in bringing them demonstrably about, I can see no 
difficulty in believing that they may occur in the laboratory of 
nature at any time — at the present day as well as in the long past 
age — and that whenever they occur — at the present day as well as 
in the remotest age — the production of living protoplasm from 
inorganic elements takes place.) 
A lump of protoplasm subjected to inspection, under appropriate 
circumstances, can be observed to become larger by taking up, i. e. 
by combination or mixture with similar plasmic matter, and finally 
to divide. This so-called “ spontaneous division” my hypothesis 
regards as the consequence of the mixture of two little lumps, 
similar, but not entirely alike. Two specks of protoplasm, no 
matter how perfectly alike they may be supposed to be at their 
production, cannot remain identically similar, because their exist- 
ence and surroundings in space, and therefore the modifying 
influences to which they are exposed, cannot be identically the 
same. If we assume that two such specks combine and are 
thoroughly mixed with each other, and then divide, we may draw 
the following two inferences: — 1, the resulting specks differ from 
each of the original specks, inasmuch as they contain plastidules of 
both ; and 2, the resulting specks represent accurately the con- 
stitution of the two original specks, but not as these were at the 
time of their production, but as they are at the time of mixture. 
We thus arrive at the most elementary conception of the two 
fundamental laws of the phenomena of all living beings, viz. 
adaptation and heredity. I use the general expression “ adapta- 
tion ” like Haeckel, to denote the reaction of all influences which 
affect the being, i. e. all modifications of its constitution which occur 
from the moment of its production to that of its death. While 
