364 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1911. 



properties of the hydrogen and the oxygen which combine to form it, 

 so the marvelous properties of protein are due to the assemblage of 

 the properties of the carbon, hydrogen, and other elements which 

 enter into its composition. The molecules of protein, in some at 

 present unknown way, are built up so as to form the still more 

 complex body, living protoplasm. 1 



The fundamental principle we have to bear in mind is that living 

 protein, without alteration in its chemical composition, is capable of 

 existing in a multitude of forms. As Prof. W. B. Hardy states, all 

 proteids are not the same proteids; there are proteids of men, others 

 of beasts, others of fishes, and others of birds. The properties of a 

 complex substance like protein are defined not so much by the kind 

 of atoms or number of elements of which it is built up, as by the 

 structural arrangement and the motion of those atoms in space. 3 

 He gives as an example the molecules of two chemical substances, 

 benzonitrile and phenylisocyanide, each of these being composed of 

 seven atoms of carbon, five of hydrogen, and one of nitrogen. There 

 is a small difference in the arrangement of these atoms; this differ- 

 ence so alters the properties of the two substances that one is a harm- 

 less fluid with an aromatic smell; the other an offensive poison. It 

 is evident from the complex nature of the elements of a proteid that 

 its molecules must be of far larger dimensions than the molecules of 

 inorganic substances; but the larger the size the greater the proba- 

 bility of variation of its elements in detail by the action upon them of 

 various forms of energy. As we have elsewhere stated, it is, we hold, 

 in consequence of the unique structural arrangement and motion of 

 the elements which constitute protoplasm, that it acts as a trans- 

 former of chemical and other kinds of energy into phenomena char- 

 acteristic of living matter. 3 



The majority of persons who have studied the subject are of opinion 

 that organic evolution is a natural process, the existing orders of ani- 

 mals and plants having been progressively developed out of specially 

 adapted protoplasmic elements. Nevertheless, a considerable num- 

 ber of educated people have misgivings on this subject, for they fail 

 to comprehend how, if the various classes of animals have been gradu- 

 ally evolved out of a common form of organic matter, it comes to 

 pass that some of them should possess a nervous system, through 

 means of which they have gained the power of guiding their actions 



i The Doctrine of Evolution, by Prof. H. E. Crampton, p. 22. 



2 Science Progress, vol. 1, p. 195. 



s It may be shown that we can fix certain qualities on the surface layer of solids such as protoplasm by 

 the use of minute amounts of salts. The salts may be washed out, but its effects remain and exert a direct 

 influence on the succeeding molecular events, so far this action lasts for all time in the absence of active 

 chemical intervention. See Journal de Chem. Physique, vols. 2 and 3, pp. 61, 50; Human Speech, by N. 

 C. Macnamara, International Scientific Series, vol. 95, p. 12. 



Prof. Villa, in his admirable work on Contemporary Psychology, states "What we call 'life' or biological 

 organization is the result of a peculiar combination of elements," pp. 2f>8, 271. 



